flak

or flack

[ flak ]

/ flæk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR flak ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

antiaircraft fire, especially as experienced by the crews of combat airplanes at which the fire is directed.

criticism; hostile reaction; abuse: Such an unpopular decision is bound to draw a lot of flak from the press.

Nearby words

Origin of flak

1935–40; < German Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)k(anone) antiaircraft gun, equivalent to Flieger aircraft (literally, flyer) + Abwehr defense + Kanone gun, cannon

Can be confusedflack flak

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for flak

It felt to me like a plane flying through the flak of an economy.
F-111: Death-Dealing, Pop-Art Masterpiece|Nicolaus Mills|October 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
You fired off a tweet about ISIS recently that got you some flak.
Bill Maher: 'Sorry J. Law, We're Going to Have to Look at Your Nipples…'|Marlow Stern|September 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They looked younger now than when weighed down in camouflage, flak jackets and helmets.
Shakeup In the Ukraine Rebel High Command|Jamie Dettmer|August 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
When NYC Prep premiered, it got a lot of flak for the sheer gall of its unreality.
The Surreal Genius of Bravo’s Rich Kids Docudrama ‘NYC Prep’|Amy Zimmerman|April 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

He was bare armed under a protective jacket a jail official termed “a kind of flak jacket.”
Ex-Cop’s Shooting of Texting Moviegoer Ends in Tragedy|Michael Daly|January 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sim's ship had picked up a small piece of flak, but it had done no damage.
A Yankee Flier Over Berlin|Al Avery
Suddenly they realized that they were being covered by flak fired from a field ahead of them.
A Yankee Flier in Italy|Rutherford G. Montgomery
Flake′-white, the purest white-lead for painting, in the form of scales or plates; Flak′iness.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M)|Various
There were flak towers, but they were too dangerous and we all flew around them.
The Biography of a Rabbit|Roy Benson
They laid their flak and their tracers on him in a deadly hail of screaming steel.
A Yankee Flier in Italy|Rutherford G. Montgomery

British Dictionary definitions for flak

flak

flack

/ (flæk) /

noun

anti-aircraft fire or artillery

informal a great deal of adverse criticism

Word Origin for flak

C20: from German Fl (ieger) a (bwehr) k (anone), literally: aircraft defence gun

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

Word Origin and History for flak

flak

1938, from German Flak, condensed from Fliegerabwehrkanone, literally "pilot warding-off cannon." Sense of "anti-aircraft fire" is 1940; metaphoric sense of "criticism" is c.1963 in American English.