Other forms: flukes
A fluke is a piece of luck that could not be repeated. A complete fluke, by a fluke, pure fluke.
It carries a hint of dismissal: calling a win a fluke says the skill was not there. The word seems to have started as a lucky shot in billiards. Two unrelated flukes exist: the fluke is the flat triangular tail of a whale, and also the barb on an anchor; and a fluke is a parasitic flatworm, as in liver fluke. Note flukey, meaning lucky rather than skilful.
1nounflukeA piece of luck that could not be repeated.
“The first goal was a fluke; the ball bounced off a defender's head.”
2nounflatThe flat tail of a whale, or the barb of an anchor.
“The whale lifted its huge fluke out of the water and dived.”
fluke is a chance event, or a flat blade.
The origin is unknown, probably dialect, and it seems to have meant a lucky shot at billiards first. The whale's tail and the flatworm are separate words that happen to have arrived at the same spelling.
unknown, perhaps dialectal. It seems to have originally referred to a lucky shot at billiards. Possibly connected to fluke#Etymology_3, referring to whales' use of flukes to move rapidly. Possibly derived from German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire