se battre les flancs
\sə batʁ le flɑ̃\
The verdict
“se battre les flancs” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire de grands efforts de volonté ; s’évertuer.
Corpus desk
Index FR-se-battre-les-flancs · se battre les flancs · French
se battre les flancs · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | se battre les flancs |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sə batʁ le flɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « se battre les flancs » en français
Rare enough to double-check
se battre les flancs is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sə batʁ le flɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Faire de grands efforts de volonté ; s’évertuer.".
se battre les flancs has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is se battre les flancs, spelled S-E- -B-A-T-T-R-E- -L-E-S- -F-L-A-N-C-S.
Definition
- 1Faire de grands efforts de volonté ; s’évertuer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how se battre les flancs appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Bonaparte rentra de nuit, ne sachant quelle réception il devoit espérer ; mais ses esclaves ne se démentirent point , et le Sénat en particulier se battit les flancs pour lui témoigner toute l’allégresse des Français, en voyant leur Souverain avoir pu échapper seul aux désastres qui couvroient la France de deuil.
Les autres articles de la Minerve n’étaient pas même lus : bien que leurs auteurs se battissent les flancs pour faire de la verve, ils n’en étaient que plus froids.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.