flak jacket

noun

A special piece of clothing worn by soldiers to protect them from shrapnel and grenade fragments, other non-direct fire and battlefield debris. Sometimes used informally to connote any of the various forms of a bullet-proof vest.

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Meanings

nounflak jacket (plural flak jackets)

plural flak jackets

  1. A special piece of clothing worn by soldiers to protect them from shrapnel and grenade fragments, other non-direct fire and battlefield debris. Sometimes used informally to connote any of the various forms of a bullet-proof vest.

    By longstanding, bipartisan tradition, decades of White House press secretaries have handed down a cheeky symbol of their job fielding rat-a-tat inquiries from feisty reporters: a flak jacket.

    2022 May 20, Michael M. Grynbaum, “White House Press Secretary Gets a New ‘Flak Jacket’: A Women’s Blazer”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Translations

Finnish sirpaleliivi
  • sirpaleliivipiece of protective clothing
French gilet pare-éclats
  • gilet pare-éclatspiece of protective clothing
Polish but see kamizelka kuloodporna
  • but see kamizelka kuloodpornapiece of protective clothing
Russian бронежиле́т
  • бронежиле́т (bronežilét)piece of protective clothing
Spanish chaqueta flak
  • chaqueta flakpiece of protective clothing
Swedish splitterskyddsväst
  • splitterskyddsvästpiece of protective clothing
Cite this entry
APA

flak jacket. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flak%20jacket

MLA

“flak jacket.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flak%20jacket. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “flak jacket,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flak%20jacket.

Source: flak jacket on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.