shank – English noun declension

English noun forms of shank

Noun: shank
Singularshank
Pluralshanks

Sample Sentences

  • Edward I of England was nicknamed Edward Longshanks.
  • His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank […] [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)]:]
  • 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. [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:]
  • This twist drill has a reduced shank so that it can be used even in a small chuck.
  • To a good golfer a shank is disgracefuller than being dead drunk or in jail. [1953, Arnold Gingrich, The Esquire Treasury:]
  • 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 [2017, Stormzy, Mura Masa, “Mr Skeng” (track 1), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy:]
  • One of the shot callers' responsibilities was to control the shanks within the prison population—the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner. [2019, Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey, The Shot Caller […] , Emanate Books, →ISBN, page 76:]
  • the shank of the morning
  • AMANDA: Going now? You're joking! Why, it's only the shank of the evening, Mr. O’Connor! [1945, Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, page 92:]

Etymology

1. Inherited from Middle English sceonke, schank, schanke, shanke, schonke, sconke, sschanke, from Old English sċanca, sċeanca, sċeonca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (“shank; thigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to hobble, limp; to tilt”).
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with West Frisian skonk (“leg”), Dutch schenkel (“shank”), German and Luxembourgish Schenkel (“thigh”), Danish skank (“shank; leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk skank, skonk (“thigh; foot”), Swedish skank, skånk (“leg”); also Cornish kamm (“pace, step”), Irish céim (“pace, step”), Manx keim (“degree, pace, stage, step”), Scottish Gaelic ceum (“pace, step”), Welsh cam (“pace, step”), Greek σκάω (skáo), σκάζω (skázo, “to burst, explode”), Bulgarian and Macedonian шега́ (šegá, “jest, joke; prank”). See: Middle English Nouns 'sceonke', Middle English Nouns 'sceonke', Old English Nouns 'sċanca', Dutch Nouns 'schenkel', Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns 'skank', Swedish Nouns 'skank', Irish Nouns 'céim'.

Verbs referencing "shank"

Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns skank, Swedish Nouns skank, German Nouns Schinken, Latin Nouns zancha.