''flange'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''flange'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260202202216-00-⌔

flange - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

flange (plural flanges)

• An external or internal rib or rim, used either to add strength or to hold something in place.
• The projecting edge of a rigid or semi-rigid component.
• (roleplaying games) An ability in a role-playing game which is not commonly available, overpowered or arbitrarily imposed by the referees.
  • ✤ [The] enduring problem with the Gathering is that[players] can’t affect anything that happens… whatever they do, the LT just flange it back to the original plot line.¹
  • ✤ ‘Oh look, the amulet of flange has been activated, this means all Paladins now only have one heal per day instead of two.’²
• (vulgar, slang) The vulva.
  • ✤ I was in bed the other day with the missus and I asked to see her flange. Imagine my surprise when she got up went downstairs to my toolbox and brought me up a metal looking object called a flange!!!!! Needless to say when she asked to see my nuts the next time I obliged by doing exactly the same as her.³
  • ✤ ‘God, she’s got a tight flange!‘the plumber gasped, splaying the girl’s buttocks and focusing on her O-ring.⁴
• (rare, humorous, collective) A group of baboons.
  • ✤ Synonyms: troop, congress
  • ✤ it’s a flange of baboons⁵
  • ✤ I suspect they hired a flange of baboons to mind the house.⁶
• The electronic sound distortion produced by a flanger.

Verb

flange (third-person singular simple present flanges, present participle flanging, simple past and past participle flanged)

• (intransitive) To be bent into a flange.
• (transitive, mechanics) To make a flange on; to furnish with a flange; to bend (esp. sheet metal) in the form of a flange.
• (transitive, sound engineering) To mix two copies of together, one delayed by a very short, slowly varying time.

Etymology

🖼️ ➺ 🖼️ ➺

From dialectal English flange (“to project”), flanch (“a projection”), from Middle French flanche, from Old French flanche (“flank, side”), from Frankish ﹡hlanku (“bend, curve; side, flank”). See flank. As a term for a group of baboons, it was popularized in the comedy TV series Not the Nine O’Clock News.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, Australian, General American, without æ-raising) IPA: /ˈflænd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (Australia): 🔊
    • (US, Canada, æ-raising) IPA: /ˈfleə̯nd͡ʒ/, /ˈflɛə̯nd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ændʒ
• Hyphenation: flange

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1998, Mr MI Pennington, “Can the Players be Trusted?”, in rec.games.frp.live-action ‎${}^{[1]}$ (Usenet): ↩

2. 2007, “balor”, Changing the metaphysics on Rule 7 [2] ↩

3. 2001, tedfat, “Flange!!!!”, in alt.society.nottingham ‎${}^{[3]}$ (Usenet): ↩

4. 2003, Ray Gordon, Hot Sheets ‎${}^{[4]}$: ↩

5. 1980s (first use), Not the Nine O’clock News, Rowan Atkinson (actor): ↩

6. 2006, Rick Crosier, Getting Away with Murder ‎${}^{[5]}$: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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