flèche

See also: fleche, fleché, fléché, Flèche, and La Flèche

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French flèche. Compare fletch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛʃ/, /fleɪʃ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʃ, -eɪʃ

Noun

flèche (plural flèches)

1. (obsolete) An arrow.
2. (backgammon) Any of the twenty-four points on a backgammon board.
3. (architecture) A spire or steeple, especially of Gothic style; an object emerging from the ridge of a roof.
4. (military, fortification) An earthwork consisting of two berms forming an angle with an open gorge.
5. (fencing) A method of attack with a sword (foil or épée) in which the attacker's back leg crosses in front of the front leg in the offensive move.

Related terms

• flèche faîtière

Related terms

• flechette, fléchette

Verb

flèche (third-person singular simple present flèches, present participle flèching, simple past and past participle flèched)

1. (fencing) To attack using the flèche method.

Anagrams

• fleech

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French fleche, from Old French fleche, from Vulgar Latin *fleccia, borrowed from Frankish *fliukkijā, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, from *plew-.

Noun

flèche f (plural flèches)

1. (archery, symbol) arrow (projectile or symbol)
2. (architecture) spire
3. jib
4. pointer, needle
5. (fencing) fleche
6. (informal, figuratively) bright spark, quick study

   Synonym: tête

Derived terms

• faire flèche de tout bois
• flèche du Parthe

Descendants

• → Dutch: flits
  • → Middle Low German: flitse [16th c.]
    • → German: Flitz
• → English: flèche

Verb

flèche

1. inflection of flécher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

See also

• arc

Etymology 2

From Middle French fleche, partly from Old French fliche, from Old Norse flikki; and partly from Picard Old French flec, from Middle Dutch vlecke, vlicke, from Old Dutch *flikki, from Proto-West Germanic *flikkī; both from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją (“piece of meat; side of bacon”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlicke (“side of bacon”), Old English fliċċe (“side of bacon”), whence Modern English flitch.

Noun

flèche f (plural flèches)

1. flitch

Further reading

• “flèche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.