noun

• 1A person or thing positioned on the flank of something.

  ‘The team skipper led by example at full-back, while her flankers kept their respective markers off the scoreboard.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Guo moved forward into the clearing, her flankers on either side.’
  • ‘Your flankers will keep the foe from dodging your blows.’

  1. 1.1Rugby
     another term for wing forward
     ‘There will be tremendous interest in seeing how our two flying flankers go.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The Dublin-based flanker received 21 stitches in a facial wound in an accidental collision with a Shannon player.’
     • ‘Since then, honours have been piled upon the hot flanker's trammelled head.’
     • ‘Sadly, the flanker rolled on to his shoulder in the tackle and was left with a dislocation of the joint.’
     • ‘The flanker missed the league match against Leinster because of a family wedding.’
  2. 1.2American Football An offensive back who is positioned to the outside of an end.
     ‘Knapp wants to make Price the flanker in his offense.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘At Georgia, he had started at flanker, tailback, quarterback, and split end, and also had handled punt and kickoff return duties.’
     • ‘He is also athletic enough to have played both ways at college football's highest level, starting at flanker on a national championship team.’
     • ‘The plan is for Rogers to be the flanker with Williams using his speed on the backside to get downfield and make big plays.’
     • ‘The tight end and flanker line up in the normal spots on the three-receiver side.’
  3. 1.3Military A fortification guarding or menacing the side of a force or position.
     ‘The 23rd Light Dragoons, raised in 1781, armed its flankers with small, short blunderbusses with elliptical muzzles referred to as musketoons.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It has four flankers which have a covered communication with each other, and are mounted with good guns.’
• 2British informal, dated A trick or swindle.

  More example sentences

  • ‘he's certainly pulled a flanker on the army’

  Synonyms

  stratagem, ploy, ruse, scheme, device, move, manoeuvre, contrivance, machination, expedient, artifice, wile, dodge