plank

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
Anyhow, the plank is all greased, and if we land him in that city he'll go back to Sicily. "

View all »
Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A piece of lumber cut thicker than a board.
  2. noun Such pieces of lumber considered as a group; planking.
  3. noun A foundation; a support.
4 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The tentative draft of the plank was as follows We recognize that the American saloon is opposed to all social, moral and economic order, and we pledge ourselves to its absolute elimination by the passage of such laws as will finally and effectually exterminate it. —  WOODROW WILSON AS I KNOW HIM
  • Howard was kindness itself, and gave Erica a generous severance check, which he called a plank-owner bonus. —  FSF,August2008
  • It didn't matter that my body was rigid as a plank, my hands balled into fists, my breathing erratic… He chuckled darkly, and leaned away. —  Stephenie Meyer - Twilight
  • Political analysts like Cho S. Ramaswamy aver that the new Jaya plank is a road to nowhere. —  Asian Tribune
  • Jack Enville, fetch a rope or a plank--quick They saw then that Feversham was lying on his face on the ice, and holding firmly to Blanche by her fair hair, thus bringing her face above the water O Jack, Jack!" —  Clare Avery A Story of the Spanish Armada
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 148 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old North French planke, from Late Latin planca, from plancus, flat; see plāk-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English planke, from Old French planke, assibilated planche, French planche, dial. planke = Provencal planca, plancha, planqua = Spanish plancha = Portuguese prancha = Italian piana = OFries. planke = Dutch plank = Middle Low German planke = Middle High German planke, blanke, German planke = Swedish planka = Danish planke, from Latin planca, a plank, a nasalized form of placa, = Greek πλάξ (πλακ-), a flat surface, a plain, tablet, plate. Cf. plack. See planch, a doublet of plank. The Irish and W. plane is apparently from English
  2. = OFries. plonken = Middle Dutch planken = Middle Low German planken = German planken = Swedish planka = Dan.planke, plank; from the noun. Cf. planch, v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/plæŋk/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

salient · surprising · oust · proliferation · dogpile

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

procrastinate · its not like im ugly people tell me im pretty · be careful! the razor is razor-sharp! · minty-fresh death threat · please stop sucking the monkeybread