fluke

noun

1. A lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.

   “We've classified by a fluke; actually, the first goal was just a total fluke.”

   ““[…] That's the first time in the history of Bierce's Cove that two men made that jump on the same sea. And all the risk was yours, coming last.” “It was a fluke,” Billy insisted.”

   “Three of the best hitters in the Eastern retired on nine strikes! That was no fluke.”

   “"And I say," said Wimsey, "that it would be better for her to be hanged outright than to live and have everybody think her a murderess who got off by a fluke."”

   “It's Christmas at ground zero / Now the missiles are on their way / What a crazy fluke / We're gonna get nuked / On this jolly holiday”

2. A summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus)
3. A trematode; a parasitic flatworm of the class Trematoda, related to tapeworms (class Cestoda).

   “The man became infected with flukes after eating a meal of raw fish.”

4. Any of the triangular blades at the end of an anchor, designed to catch the ground.

   “The fluke of the anchor was wedged between two outcroppings of rock and could not be dislodged.”

   “The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.”

5. Either of the two lobes of a whale's or similar creature's tail.

   “The dolphin had an open wound on the left fluke of its tail where the propeller had injured it.”

   “But though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section of him is all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale's majestic flukes.”

   “As Walter de la Mare writes, "How uncomprehendingly must an angel from heaven smile on a poor human sitting engrossed in a romance: angled upon his hams, motionless in his chair, spectacles on nose, his two feet as close together as the flukes of a merman's tail, only his strange eyes stirring in his time-worn face."”

6. A metal hook on the head of certain staff weapons (such as a bill), made in various forms depending on function, whether used for grappling or to penetrate armour when swung at an opponent.

   “The polearm had a wide, sharpened fluke attached to the central point.”

7. In general, a winglike formation on a central piece.

   “After casting the bronze statue, we filed down the flukes and spurs from the molding process.”

8. Waste cotton.

verb

1. To obtain a successful outcome by pure chance.

   “I fluked a pass in the multiple-choice exam.”

2. To fortuitously pot a ball in an unintended way.

   “He fluked the other red into the middle pocket, despite the double kiss.”

name

1. A surname.