flank
/flæːnk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.64 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To be placed to the side(s) of something (usually in terms of two objects, one on each side).
Intransitive verb
noun
A cut of meat from the flank of an animal.
Example Sentences
- "Stately colonnades are flank'd with trees."
- "[...] 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."
- "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."
- "Holonym: side"
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
From Late Middle English flanc, from Late Old English flanc (“flank”), from Old French flanc, of Germanic origin, probably Frankish *hlanca, from Proto-West Germanic *hlanku (“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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: flanc, -, *hlanca, *hlanku, *hlankaz, *kleng-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /flæːnk/
- British English: /flænk/
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- American usage