flank

present singular third person flanks · participle present flanking · participle past flanked · past flanked · alternative obsolete flanck

1. transitiveTo attack the flank(s) of.
2. transitiveTo defend the flank(s) of.
3. transitiveTo place to the side(s) of.

   Stately colonnades are flank'd with trees.

   c. 1728, Christopher Pitt, Epistle to Mr. Spence

   2 more examples

   [...] 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.

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

   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.

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

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

plural flanks · alternative obsolete flanck

1. anatomyThe lateral flesh between the last rib and the hip.

   Holonym: side

   Synonyms: latus

2. cookingA cut of meat from the flank of an animal.
3. governmentThe extreme left or right edge of a military formation, army etc.

   Synonyms: wing

4. governmentThe sides of a bastion perpendicular to the wall from which the bastion projects.
5. The side of something, in general senses.

   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.

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

   1 more example

   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.

   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 to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

   Synonyms: side

6. businessEither of the two pockets located on the seat of a pair of pants.

   I took the quarter and hid it in my right flank.

7. governmentAn ideological faction within a political party.

   Ford survived a primary challenge in 1976 from the right flank of the Republican Party by Ronald Reagan.

8. The outermost strip of a road.
9. ball gamesThe wing, one side of the pitch.

   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.

   2011 January 23, Alistair Magowan, “Blackburn 2 - 0 West Brom”, in BBC

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

alternative obsolete flanck

1. USnot comparablenauticalMaximum. 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!