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Synonyms

flask

1 American  
[flask, flahsk] / flæsk, flɑsk /

noun

  1. a bottle, usually of glass, having a rounded body and a narrow neck, used especially in laboratory experimentation.

  2. a flat metal or glass bottle for carrying in the pocket.

    a flask of brandy.

  3. an iron container for shipping mercury, holding a standard commercial unit of 76 pounds (34 kilograms).

  4. Metallurgy. a container into which sand is rammed around a pattern to form a mold.

flask 2 American  
[flask, flahsk] / flæsk, flɑsk /

noun

Ordnance.

  1. the armored plates making up the sides of a gun-carriage trail.

  2. Obsolete. the bed of a gun carriage.

flask British  
/ flɑːsk /

noun

  1. a bottle with a narrow neck, esp used in a laboratory or for wine, oil, etc

  2. Also called: hip flask.  a small flattened container of glass or metal designed to be carried in a pocket, esp for liquor

  3. See powder flask

  4. a container packed with sand to form a mould in a foundry

  5. See vacuum flask

  6. Also called: cask.   coffin.  engineering a container used for transporting irradiated nuclear fuel

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
flask Scientific  
/ flăsk /

  1. A rounded container with a long neck, used in laboratories.

Etymology

Origin of flask1

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English: “cask, keg,” from Anglo-French, Old French flaske, Late Latin flasca, earlier flascō, of uncertain origin; compare Old English flasce, flaxe, Old High German flasca ( German flasche ); flagon

Origin of flask2

1570–80; < dialectal French flasque cheek of a gun carriage < Late Latin flasca flask 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He used to carry a tiny flask of it in his man purse to dribble onto meals at restaurants.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2024

A misterioso clairvoyant, Madame Web is a secondary Spider-Man character who met the web-weaver in the comics in 1980 while regally parked on a life-support system shaped like a round-bottom flask.

From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2024

Since developing the all-steel vacuum flask in 1913, the Stanley company has cultivated a particularly rugged, if not decidedly masculine, image.

From Salon • Jan. 11, 2024

For modern progressive Jews, the Talmudic story of the miraculous flask of oil sits more comfortably than the story of zealots exercising military strength.

From Slate • Dec. 10, 2023

Geisbert said to him, “There’s something very strange going on in that flask, but I’m not sure what it is. This isn’t like shf.”

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.