Obs. exc. arch. [f. FLANKER sb.1; cf. however Du. flankeeren, ad. F. flanquer to FLANK.]
1. trans. To support or protect on the flanks; to defend or command from a flanker; to strengthen with flankers.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, IV. i. 96. I would thinke good, at euery angle of the battell to be placed a good squadron of Muskets, which should serue to flanker it euery way, euen as the Caualleros or Trauassos do the curtaine of a fort.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, V. 191. He began his first peece of fortification, vpon a Rocke which flankers the Kings Castle.
1633. T. Stafford, Pacata Hibernia, II. xxi. 233. The ground whereupon the Enemy must haue drawen in grosse, to force the passage, was flankerd from the Earles quarter by the Cannon.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 40. The City is compassed with a thick Stone Wall, flanker’d and moated about, having withal a Counterscarp, and 300 pieces of Brass Cannon mounted upon the Bulwarks and Ravelins, which renders it impregnable.
1721–1800. in Bailey, To Flanker, to fortify the Walls of a City with Bulwarks or Countermures.
fig. 1612. trans. Benvenuto’s Passenger, II. i. §27. 433. The Philosopher also flanckers this intention of ours, when he saith, that Nobilitie is a vertue of race and kinde.
1621. Earl Cork, in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1888), III. 18. This purchase will … secure and flanker yt [property] in tyme of trouble.
2. intr. To make an attack on the flank.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 619. One of these great mounts he cast up directly against the face of the towne, and the other at a corner of the same, to flanker alongst the wall.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1679), 19. In our Climates, where those sharp winds do rather flanker than blow fully opposite upon our Plantations, they thrive best.
Hence Flankered ppl. a.
1860. Whittier, Truce of Piscataqua, 18.
| And the grim, flankered block-house, bound | |
| With bristling palisades around. |
