"flak catcher" meaning in English

See flak catcher in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: flak catchers [plural]
Etymology: Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, from flak, meaning "criticism". Etymology templates: {{coin|en|Q216195}} Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe, {{m|en|flak}} flak Head templates: {{en-noun}} flak catcher (plural flak catchers)
  1. A person whose job is to conduct public relations by shielding a more prominent person by intercepting and deflecting complaints and criticism. Synonyms: flak-catcher, flack catcher, flack-catcher
    Sense id: en-flak_catcher-en-noun-PDTUxaG3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for flak catcher meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Q216195"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe",
      "name": "coin"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flak"
      },
      "expansion": "flak",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, from flak, meaning \"criticism\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "flak catchers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "flak catcher (plural flak catchers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995, William McKeen, Tom Wolfe, page 78",
          "text": "As the mau-mauing brigade heads downtown to the welfare office, they run into the chief flak catcher.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, William Deverell, High Crimes",
          "text": "But as superintendent in charge of external relationships for the RCMP — image polisher and flak catcher — Edwards had learned to become patient and thick of skin.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, David Remnick, The Bridge",
          "text": "We can't afford to go out there blind, hollering and acting the fool, and get to the table and don't know who it is we're talking to—or what we're going to ask them—whether it's someone with real power or just a third-string flak catcher.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person whose job is to conduct public relations by shielding a more prominent person by intercepting and deflecting complaints and criticism."
      ],
      "id": "en-flak_catcher-en-noun-PDTUxaG3",
      "links": [
        [
          "public relations",
          "public relations"
        ],
        [
          "shield",
          "shield"
        ],
        [
          "intercept",
          "intercept"
        ],
        [
          "deflect",
          "deflect"
        ],
        [
          "complaint",
          "complaint"
        ],
        [
          "criticism",
          "criticism"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "flak-catcher"
        },
        {
          "word": "flack catcher"
        },
        {
          "word": "flack-catcher"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "flak catcher"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Q216195"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe",
      "name": "coin"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flak"
      },
      "expansion": "flak",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, from flak, meaning \"criticism\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "flak catchers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "flak catcher (plural flak catchers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English coinages",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms coined by Tom Wolfe",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995, William McKeen, Tom Wolfe, page 78",
          "text": "As the mau-mauing brigade heads downtown to the welfare office, they run into the chief flak catcher.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, William Deverell, High Crimes",
          "text": "But as superintendent in charge of external relationships for the RCMP — image polisher and flak catcher — Edwards had learned to become patient and thick of skin.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, David Remnick, The Bridge",
          "text": "We can't afford to go out there blind, hollering and acting the fool, and get to the table and don't know who it is we're talking to—or what we're going to ask them—whether it's someone with real power or just a third-string flak catcher.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person whose job is to conduct public relations by shielding a more prominent person by intercepting and deflecting complaints and criticism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "public relations",
          "public relations"
        ],
        [
          "shield",
          "shield"
        ],
        [
          "intercept",
          "intercept"
        ],
        [
          "deflect",
          "deflect"
        ],
        [
          "complaint",
          "complaint"
        ],
        [
          "criticism",
          "criticism"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "flak-catcher"
    },
    {
      "word": "flack catcher"
    },
    {
      "word": "flack-catcher"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flak catcher"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.