fluke
pronunciation
How to pronounce fluke in British English:
UK [flu:k]
How to pronounce fluke in American English:
US [fluk]
-
- Noun:
- a stroke of luck
- a barb on a harpoon or arrow
- flat blade-like projection on the arm of an anchor
- either of the two lobes of the tail of a cetacean
- parasitic flatworms having external suckers for attaching to a host
Word Origin
- fluke (n.1)
- "flat end of an arm of an anchor," 1560s, perhaps from fluke (n.3) on resemblance of shape, or from Low German flügel "wing." Transferred meaning "whale's tail" (in plural, flukes) is by 1725, so called from resemblance.
- fluke (n.2)
- "lucky stroke, chance hit," 1857, also flook, said to be originally a lucky shot at billiards, of uncertain origin. Century Dictionary connects it with fluke (n.1) in reference to the whale's use of flukes to get along rapidly (to go a-fluking or some variant of it, "go very fast," is in Dana, Smythe, and other sailors' books of the era). OED (2nd ed. print) allows only that it is "Possibly of Eng. dialectal origin."
- fluke (n.3)
- "flatfish," Old English floc "flatfish," related to Old Norse floke "flatfish," flak "disk, floe," from Proto-Germanic *flok-, from PIE root *plak- (1) "to be flat" (see placenta). The parasite worm (1660s) so called from resemblance of shape.
Example
- 1. Individually , each team 's result could be a statistical fluke .
- 2. It 's a lancet fluke : it 's a little brain worm -- a parasitic brain worm -- that has to get into the stomach of a sheep or a cow in order to continue its life cycle .
- 3. Nor was this a fluke .
- 4. As recently as a year ago people wondered whether m-pesa 's success was a fluke .
- 5. Or it could just be a statistical fluke , especially in chance-based gambling games .