[{"Bold_text": "noun", "List Items": ["an instrument for threshing grain, consisting of a staff or handle with a freely swinging stick or bar attached to one end of it.", "a similar instrument used as a weapon of war."]}, {"Bold_text": "verb (used without object)", "List Items": ["to move about randomly and wildly:Running down to the lake I hit a patch of mud and found myself flailing all over the path, arms and legs flying.", "to make desperate or unproductive attempts to respond to a challenging problem, awkward situation, etc. (usually followed byaroundorabout):He makes things worse by flailing about with administrative solutions to educational problems he doesn't understand.For six years the government flailed, proposing one ineffectual program after another."]}, {"Bold_text": "verb (used with object)", "List Items": ["to thresh (grain) with a flail:Together they managed to clear land, seed wheat, flail the grain by hand, and grind it into flour.", "to beat, strike, attack, etc., repeatedly with or as if with a flail:I flailed the water with a variety of lures for hours, and caught three bass.The infantry closed in while artillery support flailed the enemy positions.", "to move (a limb, one’s body, etc.) randomly and wildly (often followed byaroundorabout):Gasping and choking, he flailed a hand in my general direction.", "to swing (something) about as if using a flail:She violently flailed the flare around, trying to catch the attention of the figure on the hill."]}, {"Bold_text": "adjective", "List Items": ["(of a limb or joint of the body) having excessive or abnormal mobility due to loss of muscle control as the result of injury or disease:The orthopedist studied hundreds of cases of post-polio flail shoulder."]}]