pocket flask

plural pocket flasks · alternative pocket-flask

1. datedA flat metal container for alcoholic beverages, with a narrow neck suitable for use as a drinking spout, designed to fit into a man's pocket and popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

   We were walking at a smart pace, and a sip from my pocket-flask soon set my old friend's tongue going.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 26

   1 more example

   The traveller had been at the pains of going a long way up stairs to his sleeping-room, to fetch his pocket-flask of brandy.

   1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Fellow Travellers”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 2nd book (Riches), page 334

   Synonyms: hip flask, hip-pocket flask