shank
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, 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”).
Pronunciation
Noun
shank (plural shanks)
- The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
- Edward I of England was nicknamed Edward Longshanks.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 7)]:
- His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank […]
- Meat from that part of an animal.
- (ornithology, colloquial) A 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.
- 1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC:
- 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 journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.
- 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.
- 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.
- (golf) A poorly played golf shot in which the ball is struck by the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
- 1953, Arnold Gingrich, The Esquire Treasury:
- To a good golfer a shank is disgracefuller than being dead drunk or in jail.
- (slang) An improvised stabbing weapon.
- 2017, Stormzy, Mura Masa (lyrics and music), “Mr Skeng” (track 1), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy:
- 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
- A loop forming an eye to a button.
- (architecture) The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph[18th century].
- (metalworking) A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
- (printing, dated) The body of a type; between the shoulder and the foot.
- (shoemaking) The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
- 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
- 1945, Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, page 92:
- AMANDA: Going now? You're joking! Why, it's only the shank of the evening, Mr. O’Connor!
Derived terms
- bit shank
- greenshank
- ham shank
- Longshanks
- redshank
- shankbone (“bone of the foreleg”)
- shank-iron
- shank-nag
- shank-painter
- shanks' mare
- shanks' nag
- shanks' pony
- shank-weary
- umbroshank
- velvet shank
Translations
lower part of the leg
|
meat from that part of animal
|
straight, narrow part of an object
The centre part of a fishhook
|
protruding part of an object, by which it can be attached
Verb
shank (third-person singular simple present shanks, present participle shanking, simple past and past participle shanked)
- (archaic, Ulster) To travel on foot.
- (slang) To stab, especially with an improvised blade.
- (slang) To remove another's trousers, especially in jest; to depants.
- (transitive, golf) To misstrike the ball with the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
- (transitive, chiefly tennis, soccer, gridiron football) To hit or kick the ball in an unintended direction.
- 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport:
- 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.
- (intransitive) To fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.
- 1861, Charles Darwin, Cause of the variation of flowers:
- 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 shanked off.
- (transitive, sewing) To provide (a button) with a shank (loop forming an eye).
- 2000, The Indian Textile Journal (volume 110, issues 7-12)
- The system is suitable for shanking all kind of sewn buttons (jackets, coats, blouses, shirts, trousers).
- 2000, The Indian Textile Journal (volume 110, issues 7-12)
- (shoemaking) To apply the shank to a shoe, during the process of manufacturing it.
- 1986 March 6, "Factory Work" [Poetry, 147], quoted in 2009, Deborah Boe, The Girl of the Early Race: Poems, Gegensatz Press (→ISBN):
- 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 say I beat them all.
- 1986 March 6, "Factory Work" [Poetry, 147], quoted in 2009, Deborah Boe, The Girl of the Early Race: Poems, Gegensatz Press (→ISBN):
Synonyms
Adjective
shank (comparative shanker, superlative shankest)
See also
Anagrams
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