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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

I ate a couple of slices of bread and had a cup of coffee from the Thermos flask.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

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.