pocket flask

See also: pocket-flask

English

Alternative forms

• pocket-flask

Noun

pocket flask (plural pocket flasks)

1. (dated) A 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.

   Synonyms: hip flask, hip-pocket flask

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

     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.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 26:

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

Translations

pocket-size container for alcoholic beverages — see hip flask

Further reading

• “pocket flask”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.