Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A piled-up mass, as of snow or clouds. See Synonyms at heap.
- n. A steep natural incline.
- n. An artificial embankment.
- n. The slope of land adjoining a body of water, especially adjoining a river, lake, or channel. Often used in the plural.
- n. A large elevated area of a sea floor. Often used in the plural.
- n. Games The cushion of a billiard or pool table.
- n. The lateral inward tilting, as of a motor vehicle or an aircraft, in turning or negotiating a curve.
- transitive v. To border or protect with a ridge or embankment.
- transitive v. To pile up; amass: banked earth along the wall.
- transitive v. To cover (a fire), as with ashes or fresh fuel, to ensure continued low burning.
- transitive v. To construct with a slope rising to the outside edge: The turns on the racetrack were steeply banked.
- transitive v. To tilt (an aircraft) laterally and inwardly in flight.
- transitive v. To tilt (a motor vehicle) laterally and inwardly when negotiating a curve.
- transitive v. Games To strike (a billiard ball) so that it rebounds from the cushion of the table.
- transitive v. Sports To play (a ball or puck) in such a way as to make it glance off a surface, such as a backboard or wall.
- intransitive v. To rise in or take the form of a bank.
- intransitive v. To tilt an aircraft or a motor vehicle laterally when turning.
- n. A business establishment in which money is kept for saving or commercial purposes or is invested, supplied for loans, or exchanged.
- n. The offices or building in which such an establishment is located.
- n. Games The funds of a gambling establishment.
- n. Games The funds held by a dealer or banker in some gambling games.
- n. Games The reserve pieces, cards, chips, or play money in some games, such as poker, from which the players may draw.
- n. A supply or stock for future or emergency use: a grain bank.
- n. Medicine A supply of human tissues or other materials, such as blood, skin, or sperm, held in reserve for future use.
- n. A place of safekeeping or storage: a computer's memory bank.
- n. Obsolete A moneychanger's table or place of business.
- transitive v. To deposit in or as if in a bank.
- intransitive v. To transact business with a bank or maintain a bank account.
- intransitive v. To operate a bank.
- bank on To have confidence in; rely on.
- n. A set of similar or matched things arranged in a row, especially:
- n. A set of elevators.
- n. A row of keys on a keyboard.
- n. Nautical A bench for rowers in a galley.
- n. Nautical A row of oars in a galley.
- n. Printing The lines of type under a headline.
- transitive v. To arrange or set up in a row: "Every street was banked with purple-blooming trees” ( Doris Lessing).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
- n. A branch office of such an institution
- n. An underwriter or controller of a card game, also banque.
- n. A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods.
- v. To deal with a bank or financial institution.
- v. To put into a bank.
- n. An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
- n. An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth (for example, a sandbank or mudbank).
- n. A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
- n. The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
- n. An incline, a hill.
- n. A mass noun for a quantity of clouds.
- v. To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
- v. To cause (an aircraft) to bank.
- v. To form into a bank or heap, to bank up.
- v. To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat.
- n. A row or panel of items stored or grouped together.
- n. A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard.
- v. To arrange or order in a row.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A mound, pile, or ridge of earth, raised above the surrounding level; hence, anything shaped like a mound or ridge of earth.
- n. A steep acclivity, as the slope of a hill, or the side of a ravine.
- n. The margin of a watercourse; the rising ground bordering a lake, river, or sea, or forming the edge of a cutting, or other hollow.
- n. An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shoal, shelf, or shallow.
- n.
- n. The face of the coal at which miners are working.
- n. A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
- n. The ground at the top of a shaft.
- n. The lateral inclination of an aëroplane as it rounds a curve.
- n. A group or series of objects arranged near together
- n. The tilt of a roadway or railroad, at a curve in the road, designed to counteract centrifugal forces acting on vehicles moving rapiudly around the curve, thus reducing the danger of overturning during a turn.
- n. A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars.
- n.
- n. The bench or seat upon which the judges sit.
- n. The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at Nisi Prius, or a court held for jury trials. See Banc.
- n. A sort of table used by printers.
- n. A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.
- n. An establishment for the custody, loan, exchange, or issue, of money, and for facilitating the transmission of funds by drafts or bills of exchange; an institution incorporated for performing one or more of such functions, or the stockholders (or their representatives, the directors), acting in their corporate capacity.
- n. The building or office used for banking purposes.
- n. A fund to be used in transacting business, especially a joint stock or capital.
- n. The sum of money or the checks which the dealer or banker has as a fund, from which to draw his stakes and pay his losses.
- n. In certain games, as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw; in Monopoly, the fund of money used to pay bonuses due to the players, or to which they pay fines.
- n. a place where something is stored and held available for future use
- intransitive v. To keep a bank; to carry on the business of a banker.
- intransitive v. To deposit money in a bank; to have an account with a banker.
- intransitive v. To tilt sidewise in rounding a curve; -- said of a flying machine, an aërocurve, or the like.
- transitive v. To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank.
- transitive v. To heap or pile up.
- transitive v. To pass by the banks of.
- transitive v. To build (a roadway or railroad) with an inclination at a curve in the road, so as to counteract centrifugal forces acting on vehicles moving rapiudly around the curve, thus reducing the danger of vehicles overturning at a curve.
- transitive v. To deposit in a bank.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To raise a mound or dike about; inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; embank: as, to bank a river.
- To form into a bank or heap; heap or pile: with up: as, to bank up the snow.
- To lie around or encircle, as a bank; constitute a bank around; form a bank or border to; hem in as a bank.
- To pass by the banks or fortifications of.
- To border upon.
- To impinge upon the banking-pins of a watch: said of the escapement.
- To have an account with a banker; deposit money in a bank; transact business with a bank or as a bank; exercise the trade or profession of a banker.
- To lay up on deposit in a bank: as, he banked $500.
- To fish on submarine banks, especially the Newfoundland Banks.
- n. A mound, pile, or ridge of earth raised above the surrounding plain; an artificial embankment, especially for military use.
- n. Any steep acclivity, as one rising from a river, a lake, or the sea, or forming the side of a ravine, or the steep side of a hillock on a plain.
- n. An elevation or rising ground in the sea or the bed of a river, composed of sand or other soil, and either partly above water or covered everywhere with shoal water; a shoal; a shallow: as, the banks of Newfoundland; the Dogger bank in the North Sea.
- n. A bench or long seat; also, a stage or platform to speak from. See mountebank.
- n. A bench in a galley for rowers; hence, the number of rowers seated on one bench
- n. In law, the bench or seat upon which the judges sat. See banc.
- n. A bench or row of keys in an organ or similar instrument.
- n. In carpentry, a long piece of timber, especially of fir-wood unslit, from 4 to 10 inches square.
- n. In coal-mining: The surface around the mouth of a shaft: in this sense nearly synonymous with the Cornish grass, to bank being the same as to grass
- n. In England, the whole or one end or side of a working-place under ground.
- n. In Pennsylvania, a coal-working opened by water-level drifts.
- n. In England (Cumberland), a large heap or stack of coal on the surface.
- n. The support of the moving carriage of a printing-press.
- n. In the fire-chamber of a glass-furnace, one of the banked-up parts which support the melting-pots.
- n. In printing: The table used by a hand-pressman for his unprinted paper and his printed sheets.
- n. A frame, with sloping top, on which are placed the galleys for use in collecting and proving the type set: mainly used in newspaper composing-rooms.
- n. In thread or yarn manufacture, a creel in which rows of bobbins are held.
- n. A money-dealer's table, counter, or shop.
- n. A sum of money, especially a sum to draw upon, as in a loan-bank.
- n. In games of chance, the amount or pile which the proprietor of the gaming-table, or the person who plays against all the others, has before him; the funds of a gaming establishment; a fund in certain games at cards: as, a faro-bank.
- n. An institution for receiving and lending money.
- n. The office in which the transactions of a banking company are conducted.
- n. In lumbering. Same as landing, 9.
- n. A small pottery.
- n. In lumbering, the logs cut or skidded above the amount required in a day and held over by the saw-crew or skidders, to be reported when the daily quota is not reached.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. enclose with a bank
- n. a supply or stock held in reserve for future use (especially in emergencies)
- v. tip laterally
- n. an arrangement of similar objects in a row or in tiers
- v. put into a bank account
- n. a long ridge or pile
- n. the funds held by a gambling house or the dealer in some gambling games
- n. a building in which the business of banking transacted
- v. act as the banker in a game or in gambling
- v. have confidence or faith in
- n. a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of centrifugal force
- n. sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water)
- v. do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank
- v. cover with ashes so to control the rate of burning
- n. a flight maneuver; aircraft tips laterally about its longitudinal axis (especially in turning)
- n. a container (usually with a slot in the top) for keeping money at home
- n. a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities
- v. be in the banking business
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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** Cash only, or bank to bank** I will not accept any Cashier check of any kind.
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The word bank reached new heights following the successful commercial enterprises of the East India Company.
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It brings a whole new movie -- meaning to the term bank branch.
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Early on, you find a alien watch that contains a journal to remind you of your quests, a map to show you where to go, an inventory showing quest items you have gathered, your word bank and other helpful items.
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The word bank comes from "banco," the bench on which itinerant merchants traded.
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As exhausting as this journey must have been for the word bank, it has served English-speakers well, and richly.
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Even in countries like China, Japan, and Greece, where other words are used to capture related ideas for “banking,” the English word bank is freely recognized.xviii
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The family owns a fleabag motel in a tiny, out of the way town, and the bank is about to foreclose.
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And get this: The DoJ's StopFraud.gov website has a page entitled "Protect Yourself From Fraud," but the word 'bank' never appears on it.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: Justice by the Numbers: Chasing Immigrants While Bank Criminals Go Free
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I think in this case, the bank is actually higher … Lol …
bilby commented on the word bank
Same origin, TBT.
July 18, 2009
tbtabby commented on the word bank
Means "bench" in Dutch.
July 13, 2009