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Fluke   /fluk/   Listen
noun
Fluke  n.  
1.
(Zool.) The European flounder. See Flounder. (Written also fleuk, flook, and flowk)
2.
(Zool.) Any American flounder of the genus Paralichthys, especially Paralicthys dentatus, found in the Atlantic Ocean and in adjacent bays.
3.
(Zool.) A parasitic trematode worm of several species, having a flat, lanceolate body and two suckers. Two species (Fasciola hepatica and Distoma lanceolatum) are found in the livers of sheep, and produce the disease called rot.


Fluke  n.  
1.
The part of an anchor which fastens in the ground; a flook. See Anchor.
2.
(Zool.) One of the lobes of a whale's tail, so called from the resemblance to the fluke of an anchor.
3.
An instrument for cleaning out a hole drilled in stone for blasting.
4.
An accidental and favorable stroke at billiards (called a scratch in the United States); hence, any accidental or unexpected advantage; as, he won by a fluke. (Cant, Eng.)


verb
Fluke  v. t. & v. i.  (past & past part. fluked; pres. part. fluking)  To get or score by a fluke; as, to fluke a play in billiards. (Slang)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Fluke" Quotes from Famous Books



... the barest fluke that the manoeuvre should have worked so well. Harrison Smith stumbled heavily, grabbed at Dirk and missed him. Barraclough's foot just above his waist line destroyed the last of his equilibrium and over the edge he went into the shallow water below. Unquestionably ...
— Men of Affairs • Roland Pertwee
... won't say that. You see, the best catches are very often flukes, and I remember one awful fluke of that sort." ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle
... this way. Bertie was so pleased with the result of his first speculation in horseflesh (though so far as he was concerned it was a pure fluke) that he must needs make another. If he had picked up a second cab-horse at thirty or forty pounds he could not have gone far wrong; but instead of that he must needs go to Tattersall's and give nearly fifty for a blood mare rejoicing in the name of "Tickle-me-Quick," described as being ...
— Mr. Fortescue • William Westall
... back to us. In the meantime the strain put upon the Hecla’s hawsers being too great for them, they snapped one after another, and a bower-anchor was let go as a last resource. It was one of Hawkins’s, with the double fluke, and immediately brought up, not merely the ship, but a large floe of young ice, which had just broken our stream-cable. All hands were sent upon the floe to cut it up ahead, and the whole operation was a novel and, at times, a fearful one; for ...
— Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage • William Edward Parry
... acknowledged, "and as a matter of fact I deny that I have started in any new career. It was easy enough to make use of a fluke and direct the intelligence of others towards the right person, but when the real significance of the thing still eludes you, one can scarcely claim ...
— The Evil Shepherd • E. Phillips Oppenheim


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