▪ I. flanker, n.1
(ˈflæŋkə(r))
Also 6 flancker, 7 flankier.
[f. flank v.1 +-er1.]
1. A fortification projecting so as to flank or defend another part, or to command the flank of an assailing enemy.
| 1550–1 Edward VI. Lit. Rem. (Roxb.) II. 307 Also for flankers at the kepe of Guisnes willed to be made. 1647 Sprigge Anglia Rediv. (1854) 181 The west-gate, wherein were four pieces of ordnance, and two in the flanker. 1698 Fryer E. India & Persia 59 The Castle is seated towards the bottom of the Bay, commanding it every way from the Points and Flankiers. 1753 J. Bowdoin Let. to Franklin 12 Nov. in Franklin's Wks. (1887) II. 317 note, At each corner a flanker, in which is a couple of canon. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xv, Embattled high and proudly towered, Shaded by ponderous flankers. |
† 2. A cannon posted so as to flank a position.
| 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 107 The flankers then in murdring holes that lay Went of and slew, God knowes stout men enow. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1191/2 Capteine Vaughan..entered the ditches, and viewed the flankers; whereupon the French shot off the same flankers. |
3. One posted or stationed on either flank. a. Mil. One of a detachment of skirmishers thrown out on the flanks of an army when marching, to guard the line of march. Usually pl. [= F. flanqueur.]
| 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 159 Setting out his flankers in severall places. 1635 W. Barriffe Mil. Discip. lxi. (1643) 16 The Pikes being the Flanquers. 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xx. 96 With a few flankers or rifle⁓men outside the whole. 1863 Cornh. Mag. Jan. 52 Their services as scouts and flankers proved invaluable. |
b. in non-military uses.
| 1827 Lady Morgan O'Briens & O'Flahertys I. 219 Lady Honoria was still excluded..by a blockade of carriages, and her old flanker the Castleknock. 1893 Standard Dict., Flanker 2. In grouse-driving, one of the men walking on the flanks of the line of drivers, to keep the birds in the desired line of flight. |
c. A trick, a swindle. slang (orig. Mil.).
| 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 124 Flanker..3. une échappatoire; he's done us a flanker, il nous a trompés, nous a attrapés, ou (rare) nous a échappé. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 282/1 Do a flanker..; work a flanker. 1962 Observer 27 May 3/8 An Army spokesman said: ‘..he has certainly pulled a flanker on the Army’. 1962 B. Knox Little Drops of Blood ii. 47 This bloke wasn't content wi' just fiddling the h.p. He'd been workin' another flanker. |
d. = flank forward (flank n.1 9). Also in American and Canadian football (see quot. 19612).
| 1953 H. Muller Tot Siens to Test Rugby 180 My first-choice flanker would be Des O'Brien. 1961 Auckland Weekly News 5 July 53/1 As a wingforward and later a flanker he will always be remembered. 1961 J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 165 Flanker (football), an offensive end or back who lines up five or more yards wide of his own end. 1962 Times 12 June 3/5 Pask for J. Douglas as the blindside flanker in the pack. 1968 [see end n. 3 g]. 1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 18/7 Waivers were asked on flanker Tom Bland and nobody picked him up. |
4. Anything which flanks or adjoins laterally: esp. a. a side-wall of a courtyard; a wing of a building; † b. a side-piece of timber; c. a side-piece of armour (see quot. 1659), = flancard; † d. a footpath by the side of a highway, a side-walk; e. one of the side horses in a three-horse vehicle.
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme ii. liv. 377 *To make them [citron-trees] a hood and flankers of Bay trees. 1611 Cotgr., Flanchere, A flanker, side peece, or flanking peece of timber, in building. 1631 Earl of Cork Diary in Lismore Papers Ser. i. (1886) III. 102 He bwylding..an english howse..with 2 fflankers. 1659 Torriano, Fiancari, flankers, or sidepieces for an armed man or barbed horse. 1682 Wood Life (1894) III. 25 The highway..pitched..the middle part with peebles, and the two collaterals or flankers with hard white stone. 1823 Scott Let to D. Terry 29 Oct. in Lockhart, The front of the house is now enclosed by a court-yard wall with flankers of 100 feet. 1879 O'Donovan in Daily News 16 Apr. 3/1 While the central animal is..running along a deep narrow cutting, the flankers are on the top of high banks on either side; or vice versa. |
▪ II. ˈflanker, n.2
[f. flanker v.2]
(See quots.)
| 1840 Gosse Canadian Nat. 11 They..throw out lighted fragments, ‘flankers’, as they are called. 1847 Halliwell, Flanker, a spark of fire. West. |
▪ III. flanker, v.1 Obs. exc. arch.
(ˈflæŋkə(r))
[f. flanker n.1; cf. however Du. flankeeren, ad. F. flanquer to flank.]
1. trans. To support or protect on the flanks; to defend or command from a flanker; to strengthen with flankers.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 96 At euery angle of the battell..a good squadron of Muskets..to flanker it euery way. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia v. 191 He began his first peece of fortification, vpon a Rocke which flankers the Kings Castle. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. xxi. 233 The ground..was flankerd from the Earles quarter by the Cannon. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 40 The City is compassed with a thick Stone Wall, flanker'd and moated about. 1721–1800 in Bailey, To Flanker, to fortify the Walls of a City with Bulwarks or Countermures. |
| fig. 1612 tr. Benvenuto's Passenger ii. i. §27. 433 The Philosopher also flanckers this intention of ours. 1621 Earl of Cork in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1888) III. 18 This purchase will..secure and flanker yt [property] in tyme of trouble. |
2. intr. To make an attack on the flank.
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 619 One of these great mounts he cast up directly against the face of the towne, and the other at a corner of the same, to flanker alongst the wall. 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1679) 20 Where those sharp winds do rather flanker than blow fully opposite upon our plantations. |
Hence ˈflankered ppl. a.
| 1860 Whittier Truce of Pis. 18 The grim, flankered block-house, bound With bristling palisades. |
▪ IV. † ˈflanker, v.2 Obs.
[f. flank n.2 + -er5; cf. flacker, flicker.]
intr. To sparkle. Hence ˈflankering ppl. a.
| 1567 Turberv. Epitaphes, etc. 127 The fits of love And flanckring sparkes of Cupids fire. 1577 T. Kendall Flowers of Epigr. 49 By flanckeryng flame of firie love, to cinders men are worne. |