flanker

English

Etymology

From flank +‎ -er. The verb is from the noun (sense 3).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæŋkə(ɹ)/

Noun

flanker (plural flankers)

1. (rugby) A player who plays in the back row of the scrum.
2. (American football) A wide receiver who lines up behind the line of scrimmage.
3. (military) A fortification or soldier projecting so as to defend another work or to command the flank of an assailing body.
   • 1675, The Captivity of Mary Rowlandson, from The Portable Native American Indian Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 1977, page 312,

     About two hours...they had been about the house before they prevailed to fire it (which they did with Flax and Hemp, which they brought out of the Barn, and there being no defence about the House, only two Flankers at two opposite corners and one of them not finished) they fired it once and one ventured out and quenched it, but they quickly fired it again, and that took.

   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons‎^[1], London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 2, p. 27:

     [The planters’ houses] were frequently constructed with flankers and loopholes, for the purpose of firing upon the assailants when they approached so near.

   • 1855, Washington Irving, chapter 37, in The Life of George Washington‎^[2], volume 1, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, page 278:

     It was in vain they threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants; each pause gave time for other pursuers to come within reach, and open attacks from different quarters.

Hyponyms

• blindside flanker
• openside flanker

Translations

rugby player in the back row of the scrum

• Czech: rváček m

Verb

flanker (third-person singular simple present flankers, present participle flankering, simple past and past participle flankered)

1. (obsolete) To defend by lateral fortifications.
   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:

     the Castle was neither ſo weakly mann'd nor flanker'd as they were made belive

2. (obsolete) To attack sideways.
   • 1670, John Evelyn, Sylva or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees, and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions, London, Chapter 3, “Of the Oak,” p. 19,^[3]

     […] to my observation in our Climates, where those sharp winds do rather flanker than blow fully opposite upon our Plantations, they thrive best […]

Anagrams

• Falkner, Frankel

Danish

Noun

flanker c

1. indefinite plural of flanke

Verb

flanker or flankér

1. imperative of flankere

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

flanker m (plural flankers)

1. (rugby) flanker

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

flanker m

1. indefinite plural of flanke

Verb

flanker

1. imperative of flankere

Swedish

Noun

flanker

1. indefinite plural of flank