Flank

in farriery, a wrench, or any other grief in the back of a horse. To Flank , in fortification, is to erect a battery which may play upon an enemy’s works on the right or left without being exposed to his line of fire. Any fortification, which has no defence but right forward, is faulty; and to make it complete, one part ought to flank the other. To Flank , in evolutions, to take such a position in action as either to a ist your own troops, or to annoy those of your enemy by attacking either of his flanks, without exposing yourself to all his fire. To Out-flank . A manœuvre by which an army, battalion, troop, or company outstretches another, and gets upon both or either of its flanks. To Out-Flank , in an extensive acceptation of the term, when applied to locality, means to po e any range of opposite parts, of territory, whence you might invade your neighbor. Thus France, by her present po e ions along the Dutch and Flemish coasts, outflanks all the opposite shores of England, properly so called; resting her left flank at Ushant in Finisterre, and her right at Schelling, in North Holland, in the Province of Fries land. By the conquest of Spain and Portugal, the French have extended their south western flank, and rendered the invasion of Ireland more easy. Ireland again is completely outflanked by Great Britain at Penzance, in Cornwall, and at the He brides or Western Isles, independent of the continental part of Scotland.