flask
A narrow-necked vessel of metal or glass, used for various purposes; as of sheet metal, to carry gunpowder in; or of wrought iron, to contain quicksilver; or of glass, to heat water in, etc.
Noun
- A narrow-necked vessel of metal or glass, used for various purposes; as of sheet metal, to carry gunpowder in; or of wrought iron, to contain quicksilver; or of glass, to heat water in, etc.
- A container used to discreetly carry a small amount of a hard alcoholic beverage; a pocket flask.
- Laboratory glassware used to hold larger volumes than test tubes, normally having a narrow mouth of a standard size which widens to a flat or spherical base.
- A container for holding a casting mold, especially for sand casting molds.
- A bed in a gun carriage.
- A nuclear flask, a large, secure lead-lined container for the transport of nuclear material.
- Over the years, the railway has been the safest way to move hazardous chemicals, radioactive waste, fuel for Royal Navy nuclear submarines and imported fuel for reprocessing, as well as flasks containing fuel rods to...
- A small bottle of liquor.
Origin
From Middle English flask, flaske (“case, cask, keg”), from Old English flasce, flaxe (“bottle, flask”) and Medieval Latin flascō (“bottle”); from Frankish *flaskā; both from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug”), from Proto-Indo-European *ploḱ-skō (“flat”), or from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to weave”). Doublet of fiasco, flacon, and flagon. Related to Dutch fles; also German Low German Flaske, Fless, German Flasche, Danish flaske; also Lithuanian plókščias, Czech ploský, Albanian flashkët. The sense “laboratory glassware” is from Italian fiasco, and the sense “container for holding a casting mold” is from Middle French flasque (“powder flask”), itself from Old Spanish flasco, frasco, both from Late Latin above.
Forms
Derived
Bologna flask Büchner flask Claisen flask conical flask Dewar flask Erlenmeyer flask flasker flaskette flaskful flaskless flasklet flasklike flask wagon fleaker Florence flask hipflask hip-flask hip flask hip-pocket flask hydroflask Kitasato flask Kitassato flask Kitazato flask Kjeldahl flask
Verb
- To invest a denture in a flask so as to produce a sectional mold.