lank

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“
The children--lank, wild-eyed creatures--each went to school a few months, and then stopped, unable to bear the cross of confinement within four dull walls.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Long and lean. See Synonyms at lean2.
  2. adjective Long, straight, and limp: lank and floppy hair.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • She had the look of a creature who had almost molded with the basement: her hair lank, her dark eyes nearly swallowed by their pupils. —  Gardner Dozois - The Year's Best Science Fiction 23rd Annual Collection (2006)
  • Among the newcomers was a lank, angular-featured frontiersman who answered to the name of Sam Houston. —  The Reign of Andrew Jackson
  • They are long and lank, and of very, very pale color. —  Signs of the Times
  • John was lank, and Samuel was thickset; both were in rags, out of respect to the golden saying, "In rags is a student at his best." —  Pater Peter. English.
  • "'Pears nigh ez bright ez day Ozias Crann's lank, angular frame; his narrow, bony face; his nose, long yet not large, sharp, pinched; his light grey eyes, set very closely together; his straggling reddish beard, all were fitting concomitants to accent the degree of caustic contempt he expressed. —  A Chilhowee Lily 1911
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

lanky ·  gangling ·  fleshless ·  stringy ·  gaunt ·  loose-limbed ·  cadaverous ·  grizzle ·  shapely ·  wiry ·  chubby ·  wither
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English hlanc.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English lank, from Anglo-Saxon hlanc, lank (applied to a wolf, and to a leather bottle). Cf. lank.
  2. from lank, a.
  3. from lank, adjective
  4. Also lonk; from Middle English lanke, lonke, the groin, = Middle Dutch lancke = Old High German hlanca, lanca, lanka, lancha, Middle High German lanke, lanche, loin, flank, side; hence (from Old High German hlanca, with change of Teutonic hl- to Roman fl-) Middle Latin fiancus (later Italian fianco = Spanish Portuguese fianco = Provencal flanc = French fianc, loin, flank, side, later English fiank: see flank); prob. from the adjective lank, q. v.
 

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/læŋk/
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