Other forms: flanges
A flange is the lip on a wheel that keeps it on the rail. The flange grips, a worn flange, flange wear.
It is a backstop rather than the main guidance: a railway wheel is coned, and the cone steers it back to centre so that the flange only touches on tight curves — which is why flange contact squeals. A flange is also the rim on a pipe end that bolts to another. Note that the word is related to flank.
1nounflangeThe lip on a wheel that keeps it on the rail.
“The flange of the wheel screeched against the rail as the train took the bend.”
2nounrimThe rim on a pipe end that bolts to another.
“The plumber bolted the flange of the new pipe to the tank.”
flange is a rim.
Middle French flanche means a flank or side, from a Frankish word. Flank is the same word.
Frankish
*hlanku — bend, curve; side, flank
Old French
flanche — flank, side
Middle French
flanche
English, today
flange
Built from
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 a doublet of flank. As a term for a group of baboons, it was popularized in the comedy TV series Not the Nine O'Clock News.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Railways