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Shank   /ʃæŋk/   Listen
noun
Shank  n.  (Zool.) See Chank.



Shank  n.  
1.
The part of the leg from the knee to the foot; the shin; the shin bone; also, the whole leg. "His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank."
2.
Hence, that part of an instrument, tool, or other thing, which connects the acting part with a handle or other part, by which it is held or moved. Specifically:
(a)
That part of a key which is between the bow and the part which enters the wards of the lock.
(b)
The middle part of an anchor, or that part which is between the ring and the arms.
(c)
That part of a hoe, rake, knife, or the like, by which it is secured to a handle.
(d)
A loop forming an eye to a button.
3.
(Arch.) The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.
4.
(Founding) A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
5.
(Print.) The body of a type.
6.
(Shoemaking) The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
7.
(Zool.) A wading bird with long legs; as, the green-legged shank, or knot; the yellow shank, or tattler; called also shanks.
8.
pl. Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
Shank painter (Naut.), a short rope or chain which holds the shank of an anchor against the side of a vessel when it is secured for a voyage.
To ride shank's mare, to go on foot; to walk.



verb
Shank  v. i.  To fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Shank" Quotes from Famous Books



... wiping her eyes carefully, with each corner of her apron in turn; for, she well knew her brother's horror of the railway, and all conveyances—indeed, he disliked any mode of land travelling, save on foot, or "on Shank's mare," as he called it, which was the plan he invariably adopted for reaching such places which he could not ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson

... Ahab, thou hast here, then, the best and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work. I know it, old man; these stubbs will weld together like glue from the melted bones of murderers. Quick! forge me the harpoon. And forge me first, twelve rods for its shank; then wind, and twist, and hammer these twelve together like the yarns and strands of a tow-line. Quick! I'll blow the fire. When at last the twelve rods were made, Ahab tried them, one by one, by spiralling them, with his own hand, round a long, heavy iron bolt. A flaw! rejecting the ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... the aeons of old war They sought him: wing and shank-bone, claw and bill, Were fashioned and rejected; wide and far They roamed the twilight jungles of their will; But still they sought him, and desired ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I. (of X.) • Various

... me it appeared that nearly all the time there was passed and that we were getting along toward the shank-end of the Christian era mighty fast. I was afraid my turn would come next and afraid it would not. Perhaps you know this sensation. You get it at the dentist's, and when you are on the list of after-dinner speakers ...
— "Speaking of Operations--" • Irvin S. Cobb

... up from the country of the brothons' (thick bed-coverings, then made in Mayo) 'without any for the night, nor any shift for bedding, but with an old yellow blanket with a thousand patches; he had a black trouser down to the ground with two hundred holes and forty pieces; he had long legs like the shank of a pipe, and a long great coat, for it is many the dab he put in his pocket. His coat was greasy, and it was no wonder, and an old grey hat as grey as snuff as it was many the day it was in ...
— Poets and Dreamers - Studies and translations from the Irish • Lady Augusta Gregory and Others


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