flannelnoun/ˈflænəl/

• 1

  A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.

  • With the weather turning colder, it was time to dig out our flannel sheets and nightclothes.
  • First singer and guitarist Marcus Mumford, wearing a black suit, then bassist Ted Dwane, in leather bomber and T-shirt. Next bearded banjo player Winston Marshall, his blue flannel shirt hanging loose, and pianist Ben Lovett, wrapped in a woollen coat.
• 2

  A washcloth.

  • "The Witch of Endor was a fool to her, sir: bless you, she would make no more of raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old flannel."
• 3

  A flannel shirt.

• 4

  slangSoothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.

  • Don't talk flannel!
• 5

  obsoleteSynonym of flip (“hot mixture of beer, spirit, etc.”).

flanneladj/ˈflænəl/

• 1

  Made of flannel.

flannelverb/ˈflænəl/

• 1

  To rub with a flannel.

• 2

  To wrap in flannel.

• 3

  To flatter; to suck up to.

• 4

  slangTo waffle or prevaricate.

  • I got a little cross and asked him to stop flannelling and to tell me what was holding me back. Were my annual assessments below par? Was there something I had done – or not done?