Word Finder - flank

definition

The flesh between the last rib and the hip; the side.

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A cut of meat from the flank of an animal.

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The extreme left or right edge of a military formation, army etc.

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The sides of a bastion perpendicular to the wall from which the bastion projects.

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The side of something, in general senses.

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The outermost strip of a road.

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The wing, one side of the pitch.

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

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To attack the flank(s) of.

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To defend the flank(s) of.

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To place to the side(s) of.

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

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(of speed) Maximum. 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.

example

All ahead flank!

Having reached the left flank, instead of going to the front where the firing was, he began to look for the general and his staff where they could not possibly be, and so did not deliver the order.

The cause of the confusion was that while the Austrian cavalry was moving toward our left flank, the higher command found that our center was too far separated from our right flank and the cavalry were all ordered to turn back to the right.

On the hills that flank Bengal on the east the fall is very great.

The Emperors rode up to the flank, and the trumpets of the first cavalry regiment played the general march.

With his shaggy head thrown back like birds when they drink, pressing his spurs mercilessly into the sides of his good horse, Bedouin, and sitting as though falling backwards in the saddle, he galloped to the other flank of the squadron and shouted in a hoarse voice to the men to look to their pistols.

The two commanders were much exasperated with one another and, long after the action had begun on the right flank and the French were already advancing, were engaged in discussion with the sole object of offending one another.

Yes, exactly; the left flank is now extremely strong.

Our fugitives returned, the battalions re-formed, and the French who had nearly cut our left flank in half were for the moment repulsed.

On our right flank commanded by Bagration, at nine o'clock the battle had not yet begun.

Napoleon, riding to Valuevo on the twenty-fourth, did not see (as the history books say he did) the position of the Russians from Utitsa to Borodino (he could not have seen that position because it did not exist), nor did he see an advanced post of the Russian army, but while pursuing the Russian rearguard he came upon the left flank of the Russian position--at the Shevardino Redoubt--and unexpectedly for the Russians moved his army across the Kolocha.

In that case the dragoons could successfully make a flank counterattack.

Eric Hakonson attacked the flank.

Rostov patted the horse's neck and then his flank, and lingered for a moment.

The troops of the left flank, infantry and hussars alike, felt that the commander did not himself know what to do, and this irresolution communicated itself to the men.

She struggled to mount behind one of the guards shielding her, when an attacker's blow landed solidly against his horse's flank.

The main army, with the emperor in person, covered by Murat and the cavalry, moved on Vilna, whilst Jerome on his right rear at once threatened Bagration and covered the emperor's outer flank.

At the same time he heard that Pahlen's Cossacks had been withdrawn forty-eight hours previously, thus completely exposing his flank.

This Turkish artillery was bearing upon Helles not merely from the uplands facing the Allies' front line, but also from the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles on the Allies' flank.

They moreover enjoyed an even more marked superiority in respect to artillery, and this the Ottoman commander-in-chief hastened to turn to account; the heavier guns which had been sweeping the Anzac and Suvla areas for months past were promptly transferred to the high ground overlooking the extremity of the peninsula or to positions on the Asiatic side of the Straits from which the extremity of the peninsula could be effectively taken in flank.

In the meanwhile nearly all the French infantry posted between the two villages and in front of the bridges had been drawn into the fight on either flank.

The artillery was posted on the Dunbar side of the burn, directly opposite and north of Doon, the infantry and cavalry crossed where they could, and formed up gradually in a line south of and roughly parallel to the Berwick road, the extreme left of horse and foot, acting as a reserve, crossed at Brocksmouth House on the outer flank.

When in addition two hussar regiments struck them in flank they were driven back in wild disorder upon Rezonville.

So sudden had been their onset that very few were hit until the infantry had been passed; then the latter, recovering from the shock, turned and fired into the cavalry from behind, whilst a whole fresh division of French horsemen charged them in flank.

Corps and of the 40th brigade, which latter had been at once ordered into the Tronville copses to check portions of Tixier's division of the French 3rd Corps, which under cover of these copses had gradually worked round the Prussian flank.

Hardly had they stepped off when Cissey's first line, catching sight of them, opened a devastating fire upon their left flank, and to meet this fresh danger the Prussians endeavoured to change front half-left whilst still on the move.

In a few minutes the batteries on the extreme Prussian left were completely overwhelmed, and suddenly dense lines of French skirmishers emerged from a fold in the ground upon their flank and front, and the gunners were compelled to resort to case-shot, so imminent was their danger.

The French artillery had already evaded the coming blow, and had changed position, "right back," to cover the flank of the rest of the army, and the Prussian and Saxon artillery trotting forward conformed to this new front, their shells sweeping the ground for 2000 yds.

Corps, but that the salient held by the enemy in that area should be left until the progress of the operations on either flank should endanger the garrison's line of retreat.

Corps on the left flank reached the suburbs of Cambrai on both banks of the Scheldt canal.

Corps had the subsidiary role of covering and securing the left flank of the composite corps.

The establishment of Elizabeth on the English throne put on the flank of his scattered dominions another power, forced no less than France by unavoidable political necessities to be his enemy.

On one of these streams, the Nebel, the French and Bavarians (somewhat superior in numbers) took up their position facing eastward, their right flank resting on the Danube, their left in the underfeatures of the hilly ground, and their front covered by the Nebel, on which were the villages of Oberglau, Unterglau and Blenheim.

Its left was not carried out as far as the Flossgraben in order to leave room on that flank for Pappenheim.

The victory was decided for Genoa by the squadron of Giacaria which fell on the flank of the Pisans.

To concentrate the whole army on either flank would take six days, and on the common centre, about Charleroi, three days.

As soon as the Prussian marshal got the first real warning of imminent danger, he ordered (in accordance with the prearranged plan) an immediate concentration of his army on his inner flank at Sombreffe.

Failing to appreciate this fully, Wellington omitted to order an immediate concentration on his inner (left) flank as Blucher had done, and the danger of Blucher's position was thus enormously increased.

But if the intelligence which the duke rightly relied on had come to hand on the r 5th, it cannot be doubted that he would have effected a more expeditious concentration on his inner flank.

Not yet had Napoleon grasped the full significance of the allied movements, for the decisive flank had not yet become clear.

Picton at once stopped the victorious French advance to the east of the road, but the remaining division (Jerome) of Reille's corps now reached the front and Ney flung it into the Bossu wood to clear that place and keep his left flank free.

When the fighting was over, at ro P.M., Ney wrote a short and somewhat one-sided account of the action to Soult On the other flank there had meanwhile been waged the bitterly fought battle of Ligny.

However, Gneisenau was very remiss in not immediately reporting this vital move and the necessity for it to the duke, as it left the Anglo-Dutch inner flank quite exposed.

On the other flank, too, things had gone all in favour of Wellington.

Napoleon's plan being to penetrate between the allies and then defeat them successively, the left was really the threatened flank of the Anglo-Dutch army.

Both these farms were strengthened; but, still nervous about his right flank, the duke occupied Hougoumont in much greater force than La Haye Sainte, and massed the bulk of his troops on his right.

Its meaning will then clearly be, that Grouchy was to endeavour to place his force on the inner Prussian flank and hold them back from Waterloo.

To set his right flank free the emperor called further on his reserve, and sent Duhesme with the Young Guard to Lobau's support.

Napoleon, therefore, had to free his right flank before he could make use of Ney's capture.

The scenery is very beautiful; the valley about the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal Water is in great part wooded, while on its eastern flank there rises boldly the range of hills which includes Rydal Fell, Fairfield and Seat Sandal, and, farther north, Helvellyn.

From this time onward, Arabia, instead of being a possible source of strength to the Ottoman Empire, became the theatre of hostile, operations which presently extended northward to southern Palestine and endangered the left flank of the Turkish army threatening Egypt.