flask

Meanings

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.

Verb

• To invest a denture in a flask so as to produce a sectional mold.

Origin

• From Middle English flask, flaske, from Old English flasce, flaxe and Medieval Latin flascō ("bottle"); from Frankish *flasko, *flaska; whence also Dutch fles; both from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ ("braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug") (whence also German Low German Flaske, Fless, German Flasche), from Proto-Indo-European *ploḱ-skō ("flat") (whence also Lithuanian plókščias, Czech ploský, Albanian flashkët), or from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ("to weave").
• Sense 2 from Italian fiasco and sense 3 from Middle French flasque ("powder flask"), itself from Old Spanish flasco, frasco, both from Late Latin above.