flèche
Americannoun
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flèches
plural
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Architecture. a steeple or spire, especially one in the Gothic style, emerging from the ridge of a roof.
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Fortification. a fieldwork consisting of two faces forming a salient angle with an open gorge.
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Fencing. a method of attack with saber or épée in which the attacker leaves from the rear foot and advances rapidly toward the opponent.
noun
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Also called: spirelet. a slender spire, esp over the intersection of the nave and transept ridges of a church roof
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a pointed part of a fortification directed towards the attackers
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fencing a short running attack
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of flèche
1700–10; < French: literally, arrow, probably < Germanic. Cf. fly 2
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.
See Examples For:
Around this great flèche, he concocted a fantastical menagerie of apostles and mythical creatures – most of which appear to have been saved from the flames, having already been removed for restoration.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2019
This animal usually swims in troops, and its motions in the water are performed with such wonderful rapidity, that the French sailors call it la flèche de la mer, or the sea-arrow.
From Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich
We saw the weather-beaten, leaden flèche of the cathedral high on the hill, but for the time were satisfied to study the many ancient houses which still remain.
From Hospital Sketches by Robert Swain Peabody
‘Let us go to the platform at the base of the flèche, and wait for a view there.’
From The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy
A characteristic feature of Hertfordshire churches—rare elsewhere—is the narrow tapering flèche, or leaded spire; a feature almost wholly absent is the apse, which is, I believe, present only at Bengeo, Great Wymondley, and Amwell.
From Hertfordshire by E. H. (Edmund Hort) New
Backgammon is one of the older kindred games, frequently played on the interior of the chess board which was for that purpose marked with twelve points or flèches in alternate colours.
From Chats on Household Curios by Fred. W. (Frederick William) Burgess
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.
