[f. as prec. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FLOUT; an instance of this.
1574. Whitgift, Def. Aunsw., II. i. § 6. 91. But Lord what gybing & flouting would there be, if I shold happen to fall into so manifest & open absurdities.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., V. xv. 382. A desperate impudencie, seconded with bloodie floutings, with terrible despightings, with murthers and massacres.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 453. Scurrilous Words, Scoffing and Jeering, Flouting, and Taunting, are to be censured as vicious Abuses of Speech.
1884. Bath Herald, 25 Oct., 3/1. The second flouting of the popular will.
2. Comb. † flouting-stock (a) a butt for flouting, an object of mockery; (b) = FLOUT sb. (perh. the use is a blunder ascribed to the Welsh speaker).
1592. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 309. Foretel not, what thou intendest to atcheiue, lesse peraduenture being frustrate, thou be laughed to scorne, and made a notable flowting-stocke.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. v. 83. You are wise, and full of gibes, and vlouting-stocks, and ’tis not convenient you should be cozened.
1817. W. Godwin, Mandeville, I. xi. 263. Within the walls of Winchester College, I was treated as nothing, a flouting stock and a make-game, a monstrous and abortive birth, created for no other end than to be the scoff of my fellows, their sport, and their joy, when they stood in need of an object to spend their brutal and unthinking mirth upon.
