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  1. chank love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The chough, or red-legged crow, Pyrrhocorax graculus.
  2. n. The most generally known species of the family Turbinellidæ, Turbinella pyrum. It has a top-like shell with a long slender canal, and under the epidermis is marked by revolving lines suggesting bars of music. It is especially sought for about Ceylon, in the gulf of Manar, and other places, in water about two fathoms deep, and is obtained by diving. It is also found fossilized in extensive beds. The chank is the sacred shell of the Hindus, and the god Vishnu is represented with one in his hand. It is also the emblem of the kingdom of Travancore. Sinistral or left-handed shells are held in high estimation and are rare. Much use is also made of chank-shells for ornamental purposes, and they are sewed into narrow rings or bracelets called bangles, and worn as ornaments by the Hindu women. The shells are also used as horns, and they were formerly employed by Indian warriors as trumpets.

Wiktionary

  1. n. East India The large spiral shell of several species of sea conch, much used in making bangles, especially Turbinella pyrum.
  2. v. US To eat noisily; to champ or chomp

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) The East Indian name for the large spiral shell of several species of sea conch much used in making bangles, esp. Turbinella pyrum. Called also chank shell.

Examples

  • “Speaking of the "chank" shell, that is the name given in the East Indies to certain varieties of the _voluta gravis_, fished up by divers in the”

    The English Governess at the Siamese Court Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok

  • “On Valentines Day I heard a band playing that chanky-chank mixtec music, and firecrackers going off, and the bells ringing madly at the church around the corner – It was a neighborhood fiesta.”

    Being in Oaxaca in February

  • “Notable among these was Ta-chank-pee Ho-tank-a, or His War Club Speaks Loud, who foretold a year in advance the details of a great war-party against the Ojibways.”

    The Soul of the Indian

  • “Thumb setting to work again, they heard very clearly the coins ringing, chink, chank, as they struck one against the other.”

    Grimm's Fairy Stories

  • “And when a pounded away at a shoe, and her young arm going like a flail -- chink, chank -- chink, chank -- and th 'white spatters o' hot iron flying this way and that from th 'anvil, meseemed”

    A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales

  • “I do declar ', it sets me plumb catawampus ter hev ter listen ter them blacksmiths, up yander ter thar shop, at thar everlastin' chink - chank an 'chink-chank, considerin' the tales I hearn 'bout 'em, when I war down ter the quiltin 'at M'ria's house in the Cove.”

    In the Tennessee mountains,

  • “Buddhists, by pouring upon his forehead consecrated water from a chank-shell.”

    The English Governess at the Siamese Court Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok

  • “Speaking of the “chank” shell, that is the name given in the East Indies to certain varieties of the voluta gravis, fished up by divers in the Gulf of Manaar, on the northwest coast of Ceylon.”

    The English Governess at the Siamese Court

  • “The king, his courtiers, and the chief priests being gathered round him, thanksgiving is offered up; and then the lordly beast is knighted, after the ancient manner of the Buddhists, by pouring upon his forehead consecrated water from a chank-shell.”

    The English Governess at the Siamese Court

  • “Next he waved mysteriously a few gold coins, then dropped twenty-one drops of cold water out of a jewelled shell, [Footnote: The conch, or chank shell] and finally, muttering something in Sanskrit, and placing in my hand a small silk bag containing a title of nobility and the number and description of the roods of lands pertaining to it, bade me rise, “Chow Khoon Crue Yai”!”

    The English Governess at the Siamese Court

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same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. ormer
  2. thumb-size
  3. just-hatched
  4. extra-european
  1. tarnblaze
  2. dagger-shaped
  3. goose egg
  4. cap-like
  1. still-falling
  2. cowrie
  3. still-green
  4. stone-block
  1. mag-lev
  2. conk
  3. thirteen-inch
  4. scale-model
  1. smarty
  2. cowry
  3. teardrop-shaped
  4. fully-grown
  1. explode

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. shank
  1. shank-shell
  1. chank-shell
  1. sankha
  1. trumpet
  1. chank
  1. turbinella

tags (2)

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  1. conch
  1. bird

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  • madmouth according to image search, it's also "The Elvis of Fonts" Oct 30, 2009

  • mollusque Ornamental daggers dulled by time, palm-leaf scrolls bearing royal signatures, statuettes of the Buddha, tooled betel boxes, gold inlaid areca nut cutters, perforated chank shells, a jumble of tortoiseshell and silver hair combs: they all gave off a disagreeable odor of dust and neglect.
    --Michelle de Kretser, 2004, The Hamilton Case Nov 10, 2007

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‘chank’ has been looked up 1232 times, added to 7 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.