Forms: 1 flanc, 4–7 flanke, (4 flaunke, flawnkke), 6–7 flanck(e, 5– flank. [a. F. flanc, = Pr. flanc, It. flanco (Sp., Pg. flanco, only in transferred senses, appears to be from French):—pop. Lat. *flancum.
The ulterior etymology is disputed. The most probable hypothesis appears to be that it is adopted from the Teut. word which appears in OHG. hlancha, lanka, MDu. lanke, early ME. LONKE; instances of Romanic fl- from Teut. hl- are believed to occur in some proper names, as F. Floovent, med.L. Flodoardus. Diez regarded the word as a nasalized form of the L. flaccus flaccid, comparing, for the development of sense, Ger. weiche flank from weich soft; but no adj. *flancus is known in L. or Rom.]
I. As denoting a part of the body.
1. The fleshy or muscular part of the side of an animal or a man between the ribs and the hip.
a. 1100. Prudentius Glosses, cited by Napier in Academy, XLV. 457. Ilia, flances.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9247. Schulder and side and flaunke also.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 269. Þou muste ordeyne þerfore fastnyngis tofore & bihinde & in hise flankis.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., IV. iv. Pij b. The .x. place is in the flankes for the rupture.
1583. Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 187. The poore jawde … Which hath no fleshe on his flancs.
1639. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, I. i. Charge her home in the flank, my lord.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 387. The Hedgehog hath his Back-sides and Flanks set with strong and sharp prickles.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 127.
| Down ran the wine into the road, | |
| Most piteous to be seen, | |
| Which made his horse’s flanks to smoke | |
| As they had basted been. |
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxi. 532. They [marking-irons] … may have been employed to brand the flanks of colts and cattle.
b. A part of the same sold as thick or thin flank.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xviii. 289. To collar Beef. Take a piece of thin flank of beef and bone it, cut the skin off, then salt it.
c. in Arachnida and Crustacea: The pleura or side of the tergum and thorax.
1835–6. R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 202/1. The flancs (pleuræ) … have mutually approximated and become united…. If the carapace is raised in a crab, the flancs or pleuræ are seen beneath.
† 2. The belly; the womb. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (1495), 738. An olyphaunt hath tetys vnder the breste: and the maare in the flanke bitwene the thyes behynde.
1481. Caxton, Mirrour of the World, II. vi. 76. Tholyfauns haue neuer yong fawnes but ones in longe tyme; and they bere them ii yere in their flankes.
3. In the Leather trade: That part of the hide or skin which covered the flank of the animal.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 876/1. Flank. 3. The thin portion of a skin of leather; that which previously covered the flank of the animal.
1885. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, I. i. 38. The parts of hides are called butts, backs, flanks, etc., and form grades of thickness and quality.
4. pl. (See quots.) [Cf. F. mal de flancs.]
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Flanks (among Farriers) a Wrench, Crick, Stroke or other Grief in the Back of a Horse; also a kind of Pleurisy, proceeding from his being over-run with too much Blood.
1810. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Flanks, in farriery, a wrench or any other grief in the back of a horse.
II. Transferred uses (with gen. sense ‘side.’)
5. gen. The side or lateral part of anything, e.g., of a building, a mountain, etc.
1624. Wotton, Archit. (1672), 16–7. When the Face of the Building is narrow, and the Flank deep. Ibid., 29. For lessening of expence, and inlarging of room, they [i.e., Pilasters] are commonly narrower in Flank, then in Front.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 674.
| So long, that mountains have arisen since | |
| With cities on their flanks—thou read the book! |
1892. Woodward & Burnett, Heraldry, II. 687. Flanks (F. flancs) the sides of the escucheon.
6. Mil. The extreme left or right side of an army or body of men in military formation; a wing, † A flank (see also AFLANK), in flank: at the side. To turn the flank (of an enemy): see TURN.
1548. Patten, Exped. Scotl., I ij b. Master of the ordinaunce to their great anoyaunce did gall them with hailshot & other out of the great ordinaunce directly from the hil top, and certeyn other gunners with their peces, a flanke from our Rerewarde.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 1309. Whilest he and his horsemen gave the charge on the flanke of their battaille.
1600. in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1887), I. 33. He drew vpp that squadron commaunded by Capten Roe to chardge them in fflancke.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 568.
| So scoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce | |
| Had ended; when to Right and Left the Front | |
| Divided, and to either Flank retir’d. |
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 69. Whoever offers to approach between these towers, is exposed to be taken in flank and slain.
1810. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Flank en potence is any part of the right or left wing formed at a right angle with the line.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., VI. 316. The enemy having it thus in their power to throw their whole force upon both flanks of this army, and thus to bring on a general engagement in a situation advantageous to them.
1844. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 271. They attempted to rally, but were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry, which had charged round the northern extremity of the line, and completed the expulsion of the assailants from its eastern front.
7. Fortification. Any part of a work so disposed as to defend another by a flanking fire; esp. the part of a bastion reaching from the curtain to the face and defending the opposite face.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., III. ii.
| It must have high argins and cover’d ways | |
| To keep the bulwark-fronts from battery, | |
| And parapets to hide the musketeers, | |
| Casemates to place the great artillery, | |
| And store of ordnance, that from every flank | |
| May scour the outward curtains of the fort. |
1672. Lacey, trans. Tacquett’s Milit. Archit., iii. 4. The flanques of the Bulwork and Courtine.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4082/3. The Ditch is doubly Palisadoed, with very good Flanks within.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Flank of the Courtine or Second Flank, is that part of the Courtine between the Flank and the Point where the Fitchant Line of Defence terminates.
1810. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Flank of a bastion, in fortification, that part which joins the face to the curtain, comprehended between the angle of the curtain and that of the shoulder.
1868. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), III. v. 364. At the flanks of the bastions, the lines of what would otherwise have been the curtain were so interrupted as to provide means of obtaining a flanking fire from some small guns placed in casemates.
8. In other technical uses: a. Arch. (See quot. 1874). b. Mech. (See quot. 1842).
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., Flank. The straight part of the tooth of a wheel, which receives the impulse.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 876/1. Flank. 2. (Architecture.). The haunch of an arch; the shoulder between the crown and the springing.
III. 9. attrib. and Comb., as flank-piece; (senses 6, 7) as flank attack, company, defence, file, fire, march, movement, officer; flank-wise adv. Also, flank-bone, the ilium or haunch-bone; flank-wall, a side wall.
1876. Voyle, A Military Dictionary (ed. 3), 140/2. *Flank Attack—In warfare, one of the modes of attack whereby the side or fiank of an army or body of troops is attacked.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., IV. xvi. 351. The Os Innominatum or Nameless Bone, which some term Os Coxae or Ilium, the *Flank-bone.
1809. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., IV. 324. I have also to request your Lordship’s attention to the conduct of the riflemen and of the *flank companies of the 29th, 43rd, and 52nd regiments.
1851. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif., 150. If the church is not built on a plan favourable to *flank defence, the loop-holes in the windows will not be sufficient to defend it, for the enemy would then find shelter between them.
1810. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), *Flank-files are the two first men on the right and the two last men on the left, telling downwards from the right, of a line, battalion, company, division, subdivision or section.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., VI. 331. Be prepared, particularly with your *flank fire every morning before day.
1866. E. B. Hamley, Operat. War, vi. 404. Thus Bulow’s march to the field of Waterloo was a *flank march; but for the attack on the French flank, the order of march to a front was the proper formation for his columns.
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 39. In the *flank movements of ranks by three’s or by two’s.
1611. Cotgr., Soubspoictrine, the *flanke-peece, or bottome of the brisket of an Oxe, &c.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 265. If the House had stood by it self, then we might have had light to the Stairs from the *Flank Wall.
1819. Rees, Cycl., XIV. s.v. Flank-walls, in Engineery, are the same with wing or return-walls of a lock or bridge.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 148. When they were past through, perceiving them to march in disaray, as they who perswaded themselves to be out of all danger, he pursued them, and charged them flank-wise.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 279. The seven battalions of infantry which Prince Mentschikoff had been moving flankwise were very near to the spot where their General had been eagerly awaiting them.
