bank
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bæŋk/
note: /æ/ raising
ipa: [beɪŋk]
rhymes: -æŋk
Forms: form: banks
form: banck
form: bancke
form: banke
Etymology: From Middle English bank, banke, from Old English *banca (“bench”) (attested in Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-West Germanic *bankō, from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).
Senses: examples: text: Tiber trembled underneath her banks.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: On the opposite bank of the river other Chinese units attacked Taoshih and Yunmeng north-west of Hankow.
ref: 1943 June 8, “Jap Remnants Suffer Heavy Casualties: Alerts In Chungking”, in The Bombay Chronicle, volume XXXI, number 134, page 1:
text: Just upstream of Dryburgh Abbey, a reproduction of a classical Greek temple stands at the top of a wooded hillock on the river’s north bank.
ref: 2014 September 16, Ian Jack, “Is this the end of Britishness”, in The Guardian:
topics: geography
hydrology
natural-sciences
glosses: An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
examples: text: the banks of Newfoundland
topics: geography
hydrology
natural-sciences
nautical
transport
synonyms: bar
glosses: An elevation under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth
topics: geography
natural-sciences
glosses: A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
examples: text: This is the hardest duty on the railway, for the trains are heavy and there are some long 1 in 40 banks.
ref: 1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 640:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: An incline, a hill.
examples: text: The bank of clouds on the horizon announced the arrival of the predicted storm front.
glosses: A mass of clouds.
topics: business
mining
glosses: The face of the coal at which miners are working.
topics: business
mining
glosses: A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
examples: text: Ores are brought to bank.
topics: business
mining
glosses: The ground at the top of a shaft.
Derived terms: Almondbank
Astwood Bank
at bank
bank and bank
bank beaver
bank cod
bank cress
banked slalom
bank-fish
bank fishing
bankhead
bank-high
bank-hook
banking
bankless
bankline
bank-martin
bank pool
bank-run
bankside
banksman
bank swallow
Bank Top
bank up
bank vole
banky
beetle bank
Christon Bank
clay-bank
Clay Banks
cloud bank
Clydebank
creekbank
Cut Bank
cutbank
Daisy Bank
Dogger Bank
Duffieldbank
earthbank
embank
Eskbank
fog bank
fogbank
footbank
Galabank
Georges Bank
Grand Bank
Grand Banks
hedgebank
Hest Bank
imbank
Jodrell Bank
Kenton Bank Foot
Kents Bank
Lawley Bank
left bank
loading bank
Maoribank
mole-bank
Moss Bank
Normandy bank
overbank
oyster bank
oysterbank
peat bank
phone-bank
Quarry Bank
Red Bank
right bank
river bank
riverbank
Russian bank
sandbank
seabank
snowbank
South Bank
spoil bank
stopbank
streambank
Ten Mile Bank
turf bank
Tweedbank
unbank
warping bank
West Bank
Related terms: bench