flask

Etymology

From Middle English flask, flaske (“case, cask, keg”), from Old English flasce, flaxe (“bottle, flask”) and Medieval Latin flascō (“bottle”); from Frankish *flaskā; whence also Dutch fles; both from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug”) (whence also German Low German Flaske, Fless, German Flasche, Danish flaske), 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.

noun

1. 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.
2. A container used to discreetly carry a small amount of a hard alcoholic beverage; a pocket flask.
3. (sciences) 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.
4. (engineering) A container for holding a casting mold, especially for sand casting molds.
5. A bed in a gun carriage.

verb

1. (dentistry) To invest a denture in a flask so as to produce a sectional mold.