/ʃæŋk/
OriginFrom Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Dutch schenkel, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).
- The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
“Edward I of England was nicknamed Edward Longshanks.”
“His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank […]”
- Meat from that part of an animal.
- colloquialA redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.
- A straight, narrow part of an object, such as a key or an anchor; shaft; stem.
“The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the jou”
- The handle of a pair of shears, connecting the ride to the neck.
- The center part of a fishhook between the eye and the hook, the 'hook' being the curved part that bends toward the point.
- A protruding part of an object, by which it is or can be attached.
“This twist drill has a reduced shank so that it can be used even in a small chuck.”
- The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.
- A poorly played golf shot in which the ball is struck by the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
“To a good golfer a shank is disgracefuller than being dead drunk or in jail.”
- The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
- A metal strip strengthening the waists of shoes. (Also shankpiece.)
- slangAn improvised stabbing weapon, originally in prison, possibly from the strips of metal in shoes.
“LBC's tryna blackball me / And tryna blame your boy for knife crime (Like, what?) / I don't use a shank, I got money in the bank / Man, I'd rather do a drive-by”
“One of the shot callers' responsibilities was to control the shanks within the prison population—the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner.”
- A loop forming an eye to a button.
- The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.
- A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
- datedThe body of a type; between the shoulder and the foot.
- Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
- The end or remainder, particularly of a period of time.
- The main part or beginning of a period of time.
“the shank of the morning”
“AMANDA: Going now? You're joking! Why, it's only the shank of the evening, Mr. O’Connor!”
- Ulster, archaicTo travel on foot.
- slangTo stab, especially with an improvised blade.
- slangTo remove another's trousers, especially in jest; to depants.
- transitiveTo misstrike the ball with the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
- transitiveTo hit or kick the ball in an unintended direction.
“Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.”
- intransitiveTo fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.
“the gerrnens of these swelled, and on four out of the six I have now got fine pods, above 1% inch in length, with the seeds externally visible; whereas the flower stalks of the many other flowers all ”
- transitiveTo provide (a button) with a shank (loop forming an eye).
“The system is suitable for shanking all kind of sewn buttons (jackets, coats, blouses, shirts, trousers).”
- To apply the shank to a shoe, during the process of manufacturing it.
“I take those metal shanks, slide the backs of them in glue and make them lie down on the shoe-bottoms, […] Last week they ran a contest to see which shankers shanked fastest. I'm not embarrassed to sa”
Formsshanks(plural) · shanks(present, singular, third-person) · shanking(participle, present) · shanked(participle, past) · shanked(past) · shanker(comparative) · shankest(superlative) · Shanks(plural)