flag of convenience
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of flag of convenience
First recorded in 1955–60
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.
Another popular method of deception is to adopt a false flag or flag of convenience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
Most athletes who defected competed under a kind of flag of convenience – traveling to the Summer Games from eastern Europe with a plan to head west.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
Onboard the Kulluk was a skeleton crew of 18 men, along for the ride in large part because of an inconvenience of the rig’s flag of convenience.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2014
Very few merchant ships carry British flags now - many fly a flag of convenience.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2012
In common with 34 other Transocean oil rigs, Deepwater Horizon was registered under the flag of convenience of the Marshall Islands, a country of barely 65,000 people halfway between Hawaii and Papau New Guinea.
From The Guardian ● May 30, 2010
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.