Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of fluke.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In the livers of sick sheep were lodged parasites in the shape of leaves, called flukes after their resemblance to flounder floc in Anglo-Saxon.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • In the livers of sick sheep were lodged parasites in the shape of leaves, called flukes after their resemblance to flounder floc in Anglo-Saxon.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • In the livers of sick sheep were lodged parasites in the shape of leaves, called flukes after their resemblance to flounder floc in Anglo-Saxon.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • "There go flukes!" cried the look-out as the whale dived and tossed its flukes, that is its tail, in the air, not more than a mile on the lee-bow; "she's heading right for the ship."

    The World of Ice 1859

  • Trematode worms - or "flukes" - commonly afflict mollusks today, and these invaders often use mollusks as intermediate hosts in their life cycles.

    Wired Top Stories Brian Switek 2011

  • Worms in sheep called flukes are owing to the dilute state of the bile; hence they originate in the intestines, and thence migrate into the biliary ducts, and corroding the liver produce ulcers, cough, and hectic fever, called the rot.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • 'flukes' -- Lord Chelford joked, Wylder 'chaffed,' even Lake seemed to enjoy himself; and the game proceeded with animation and no lack of laughter, beguiling the watches of the night; and we were all amazed, at length, to find how very late it was.

    Wylder's Hand Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1843

  • Some organisms, such as flukes, have life cycles that take them literally through one or more host organisms, and many insects undergo significant metamorphic changes in bodily form through their life cycle.

    The Biological Notion of Individual Wilson, Robert A. 2007

  • Whales have lost the hind limbs altogether and developed the forelegs into fingerless flippers, whilst the tail is provided with "flukes" like the fins of a fish's tail in shape, but horizontal instead of vertical.

    More Science From an Easy Chair 1888

  • He was not successful in his early life at home, where business is a harder ordeal, and with fewer of the "flukes" that cross the path in young colonies.

    Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria William Westgarth 1852

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