Word: lank Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain). Pronunciation: /ˈlæŋk/, [ˈlæŋk], /ˈleɪ̯ŋk/, [ˈleɪ̯ŋk] ~ /ˈlɛ̃ŋk/, [ˈlɛ̃ŋk] 1. Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean. Example: Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o’erteemed loins, A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up; Example: 1700, Isaac Barrow, Sermon XXII “Of Industry in our particular Calling, as Scholars,” in The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, D.D., London: John Tillotson, 2nd edition, Volume III, p. 226, […] who would not chuse […] to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain […] ? 2. Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity. Labels: obsolete Example: 1659, Samuel Cradock, Knowledge & Practice, Or, A Plain Discourse of the Chief Things Necessary to be Known, Believ’d & Practised in order to Salvation, London: John Rothwell, Chapter 17, Of the Duties of the Rich, pp. 494-495, We should think him a very imprudent Husbandman, that to save a little seed at present, would sow so thin, as to spoil his crop. And the same folly ’twill be in us, if by the sparingness and niggardize of our Almes, we make our selves a lank Harvest hereafter, and lose the reward God hath provided for the liberal Almes-giver. Example: The Captain was inclined to be bald, but he brought a quantity of lank iron-grey hair over his pate, and had a couple of whisps of the same falling down on each side of his face. 3. Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.) Example: 1695, John Stevens (translator), The Portugues Asia; or, The History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portugues, by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, London: C. Brome, Chapter 10, p. 291, The Inhabitants most simple, and treated them with great affection. Of Colour more inclined to white, of Body strong and comly, lank Hair, and long Beards, their Cloaths of very fine Mats […] Example: Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizled, and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the fore-parts of their legs and feet […] 4. Languid; drooping, slack. Labels: obsolete Example: The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus’ hall; Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe […] Example: Let us weigh the promises of the one and of the other in the balance of truth, and we shall finde that the promises of God are gold, and the promises of the devil are Alchimy, such which though they glitter much, have no worth or excellency in them. […] God’s, are substantial realities, and his, vanishing and fleeting shadows windy and swollen bladders, which but a little prickt, do quickly fall and grow lank.