1. A rare and surprising occurrence.
2. A barb on a harpoon or arrow.
3. Either of the two lobes of the tail of a cetacean.
4. Flat blade-like projection on the arm of an anchor; SYN. flue.
5. Parasitic flatworms having external suckers for attaching to a host; SYN. trematode.
Any of various parasitic flatworms of the classes Monogenea and Digenea, that as adults live in and destroy the livers of sheep, cattle, horses, dogs, and humans. Monogenetic flukes can complete their life cycle in one host; digenetic flukes require two or more hosts, for example a snail and a human being, to complete their life cycle.
An estimated 40 million people worldwide are infected by food-borne flukes, mostly from undercooked or raw fish or shellfish, according to a WHO report 1994.
Part of an anchor that fastens in the ground.