Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Antiaircraft artillery.
- n. The bursting shells fired from such artillery.
- n. Informal Excessive or abusive criticism.
- n. Informal Dissension; opposition.
Wiktionary
- n. Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells.
- n. Anti-aircraft shell fire.
- n. figuratively, informal Adverse criticism.
- n. informal A public-relations spokesperson.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer
- n. artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes
- n. intense adverse criticism
Etymologies
- German acronym of Fliegerabwehrkanone ("aeroplane defence cannon"). First attested 1938 as “antiaircraft gun”, 1940 as “antiaircraft fire”. Sense of “adverse criticism” attested since 1963 in American English. (Wiktionary)
- German, from Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)k(anone), aircraft-defense gun. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“So whenever you hear some label flak claiming 98% of the bands they sign lose money for the company, substitute the phrase "just don't earn enough" for the word "lose.”
“I will note also that she has taken some flak from the left because “too many” white males were hired.”
“He will always face flak from the minority of introducing romance to Doctor Who.”
“Also she has taken enough flak from the bias media.”
Johnston: Palin wanted to take the money, 'forget everything else'
“Our second annual spring trip to the Upper Catch and Release Area of the Miller's River, my father caught this nice brown trout, and caught flak from the elitists because he was using the fly rod with a spinning reel and rooster tail and catching fish, while the elitist fly fishers were getting skunked all morning.”
“I've had no flak from the boobs POV because there are none to be found.”
“Considering the flak from the left and right, I'd say Obama's got it just about right.”
“You reveal yourself fully not when times are flush — but when the flak is heavy, and these so-called tough guys couldn't break a thumbhold from a trembling Barney Fife.”
“I don't mind taking flak (and if a paper endorses, or chooses not to endorse, any candidate, flak is certain to be incoming), but I wasn't part of those decisions.”
“Santa punches a button, releasing a cloud of flak from the sleigh's rear.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flak’.
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*CVk
...where C is any consonant and V is any vowel.
trek, flak, anorak, fartlek, lek, beatnik, realpolitik, amok, mukluk, Wordnik, springbok, kulak and 3 more...
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Life is just a four-letter word
Everyone's got their favorites. Here are some of mine.
snit, hobo, minx, kiln, loll, pelf, yegg, ugly, bumf, brio, biro, haha and 92 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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CCW
Commonly Confused Words
wreath, wreathe, titillate, titivate, proscribe, prescribe, pedal, peddle, mettle, metal, palette, palate and 132 more...
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That's right, another list
muck-a-muck, ipse dixit, solipsism, anticlinal, analogical, amoral, alogical, synclinal, disinclined, iconological, studly, flitch and 179 more...
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daleshipley's Words
brinksmanship, contravene, teleological, sartorial, conventicle, habiliment, tendentious, acrimonious, ontology, epistemology, impugn, dysphasia and 219 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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KaeZoo's Words
flingers, unhinged, driven, flanked, arboreal, venerable, endearing, iconoclastic, fletcher, competent, fireproof, cavernous and 215 more...
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words from the German
kindergarten, sturm und drang, schadenfreude, zeppelin, blitzkreig, blitz, krieg, panzer, angst, nazi, zeitgeist, doppelganger and 107 more...
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aozuas's Words
sense data, hyperreality, brouhaha, ibid, apophenia, fnord, lackadaisical, schadenfreude, bildungsroman, ready-made, readymade, tergiversar and 654 more...
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Blitzkrieg
Germany military terms, mainly hardware but also operational words. I'm not interested in glorifying war but I am nonetheless fascinated by how these words sound: the strange, stark beauty of words...
luftwaffe, nebelwerfer, messerschmitt, focke-wulf, feldhaubitze, kanone, karabiner, schmeisser, anscheinswaffen, sturmgewehr, parabellum, panzerfaust and 102 more...
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Words that I found in old books and ...
blundderbuss, eft, bradawl, scarlatina, sclerotium, ball turret, caddis fly, calomel, cock-and-bull story, codbank, fasces, fava and 13 more...
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Communication
wheedle, pablum, hokum, puffery, voluble, jibe, jive, persiflage, laconic, nonplus, gauche, hortatory and 27 more...
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anacronyms
acronyms now used more commonly as words
fubar, snafu, radar, laser, sonar, scuba, pin, awol, wasp, asap, aids, cubar and 3 more...
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f by four
four, five, free, fair, fund, flee, flea, flue, felt, farm, fuzz, flex and 52 more...
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Favourite Etymologies
flak, avocado, cravat, cobalt, kickshaw, brook, smorgasbord, feisty, blatherskite, buckram, execution, oaf and 80 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flak.

fbharjo whatever flies! Jun 5, 2009
seanahan Very interesting etymology from etymonline, "acronym for Fliegerabwehrkanone 'airplane defense cannon.'" Jun 5, 2009