Obs. exc. dial. Also 6 flewe. [of obscure origin; possibly related to FLOW v.; cf. the relation of FLEET a. (= shallow) to FLEET v.]
1. Shallow.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 167/1. Flew, or scholde, as vessell, bassus.
1552. Huloet, Flewe or not deape, but as one may wade, breuia.
1651. H. More, Enthus. Triumph. (1656), 171. I hope you do not think, that I meant your skull was so flue and shallow that boies might shittle it, and make ducks and drakes on the water with it, as they do with oyster-shells. Ibid., 318. It is that the profoundest & most concerning Mysteries of Philosophy and Religion are never infused into such slight & flue vessels.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Flue, shallow.
2. = FLAN a. (See quots., and FLUE v.2)
1676. H. More, Remarks, 142. And the like experiment he makes here again of a heated Beer-glass with a more flew mouth, drawing up water, and weighing as one body with the water, he attributing the suspension of the water in both to the attraction of the rarefied Air.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., Flew, open; wide; expanded. ‘Your bonnet is too flew.’ ‘A flew dish,’ i. e. one with wide, spreading sides.
