flank

• flanck (obsolete)

From Late Middle English flanc, from Late Old English flanc (“flank”), from Old French flanc, of Germanic origin, probably Frankish *hlanca, from Proto-Germanic *hlankō (“bend, curve, hip, flank”), from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“flexible, sleek, bendsome”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend”). Akin to Old High German hlanca (“loin”), Middle Low German lanke (“hip joint”) (German lenken (“to bend, turn, lead”)), Old English hlanc (“loose, slender, flaccid, lank”). More at lank.

• IPA^(key): /flæŋk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -æŋk

flank (third-person singular simple present flanks, present participle flanking, simple past and past participle flanked)

1. (transitive) To attack the flank(s) of.
2. (transitive) To defend the flank(s) of.
3. (transitive) To place to the side(s) of.
   • c. 1728, Christopher Pitt, Epistle to Mr. Spence:

     Stately colonnades are flank'd with trees.

   • 1944 May and June, “Notes and News: Express Travel on Slow Lines”, in Railway Magazine, page 184:

     [...] Mr. M. N. Rollason points out that on four-track lines on which the fast lines, in the centre, are flanked by the slow lines, and running at speed is permissible on all four, the traveller can enjoy some quite exciting experiences when trains are doing a "neck-and-neck" on adjacent lines.

   • 2023 January 11, Richard Foster, “British Rail's weirdest railways...: Wisbech & Upwell Tramway”, in RAIL, number 974, page 46:

     It was a rural railway that served the fertile Fens of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. But because it flanked public roads and was unfenced (to save costs), it was deemed a tramway and its locomotives had to be fitted with a cowcatcher.

4. (intransitive) To be placed to the side(s) of something (usually in terms of two objects, one on each side).

• straddle

• outflank

flank (plural flanks)

1. (anatomy) The lateral flesh between the last rib and the hip.

   Synonym: latus

   Holonym: side

   Coordinate term: loin (coordinate especially in butchery; not consistently differentiated regarding the human body)

2. (cooking) A cut of meat from the flank of an animal.
3. (military) The extreme left or right edge of a military formation, army etc.
4. (military) The sides of a bastion perpendicular to the wall from which the bastion projects.
5. The side of something, in general senses.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they terminated in an abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful hand had broken off a great section of rock and set it upon the surface of the earth.

   • 1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48:

     Ahead the flanks of the Pennines gleamed faintly in the moonlight, looking as though they themselves were part of some dry and deserted lunar landscape.

6. The outermost strip of a road.
7. (soccer) The wing, one side of the pitch.
   • 2011 January 23, Alistair Magowan, “Blackburn 2 - 0 West Brom”, in BBC‎:

     The hosts also had Paul Robinson to thank for a string of saves, three of them coming against Jerome Thomas, who gave Michel Salgado a torrid time down the left flank.

8. That part of the acting surface of a gear wheel tooth that lies within the pitch line.

• (all senses): side
• (side of formation): wing

flank (not comparable)

1. (US, nautical, of speed) Maximum. Historically faster than full speed (the most a vessel can sustain without excessive engine wear or risk of damage), now frequently used interchangeably. Typically used in an emergency or during an attack.

   All ahead flank!

Borrowed from French flanc.

• IPA^(key): /flɑŋk/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: flank

flank f (plural flanken, diminutive flankje n)

1. side, flank

flank c

1. (military) a flank
2. (anatomy) flank

• flankera

• flank in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• flank in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• flank in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)