Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A business establishment in which money is kept for saving or commercial purposes or is invested, supplied for loans, or exchanged.
  • noun The offices or building in which such an establishment is located.
  • noun The funds of a gambling establishment.
  • noun The funds held by a dealer or banker in certain games, especially gambling games.
  • noun The reserve pieces, cards, chips, or play money in some games, such as poker, from which the players may draw.
  • noun A supply or stock for future or emergency use.
  • noun Medicine A supply of human fluids or tissues, such as blood, sperm, or skin, that is stored in a facility for future use.
  • noun A place of safekeeping or storage.
  • intransitive verb To deposit in a bank.
  • intransitive verb To store for future use.
  • intransitive verb To transact business with a bank or maintain a bank account.
  • intransitive verb To operate a bank.
  • noun A piled-up mass, as of snow or clouds; a heap.
  • noun A steep natural incline.
  • noun An artificial embankment.
  • noun The slope of land adjoining a body of water, especially adjoining a river, lake, or channel.
  • noun A large elevated area of a sea floor.
  • noun Games The cushion of a billiard or pool table.
  • noun The lateral inward tilting, as of a motor vehicle or an aircraft, in turning or negotiating a curve.
  • intransitive verb To border or protect with a ridge or embankment.
  • intransitive verb To pile up; amass.
  • intransitive verb To cover (a fire), as with ashes or fresh fuel, to ensure continued low burning.
  • intransitive verb To construct with a slope rising to the outside edge.
  • intransitive verb To tilt (an aircraft) laterally and inwardly in flight.
  • intransitive verb To tilt (a motor vehicle) laterally and inwardly when negotiating a curve.
  • intransitive verb Games To strike (a billiard ball) so that it rebounds from the cushion of the table.
  • intransitive verb 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 verb To rise in or take the form of a bank.
  • intransitive verb To tilt an aircraft or a motor vehicle laterally when turning.
  • noun A set of similar or matched things arranged in a row, especially.
  • noun A set of elevators.
  • noun A row of keys on a keyboard.
  • noun A bench for rowers in a galley.
  • noun A row of oars in a galley.
  • noun Printing The lines of type under a headline.
  • transitive verb To arrange or set up in a row.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • To fish on submarine banks, especially the Newfoundland Banks.
  • noun A money-dealer's table, counter, or shop.
  • noun A sum of money, especially a sum to draw upon, as in a loan-bank.
  • noun 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.
  • noun An institution for receiving and lending money.
  • noun The office in which the transactions of a banking company are conducted.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English banke, from French banque, from Old Italian banca, bench, moneychanger's table, from Old High German banc.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, of Scandinavian origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, bench, from Old French banc, from Late Latin bancus, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English banke, from Old English hōbanca ("couch") and Old English banc ("bank, hillock, embankment"), from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki ("elevation, hill").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Old Italian banca ("counter, moneychanger's bench or table"), from Lombardic *bench, counter, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bheg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Cognate with Old High German banc, banch ("counter, bench"), Old English banc, benc ("bench"). More at bench.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English bank ("bank"), banke, from Old French banc ("bench"), from Frankish *bank. Akin to Old English benc ("bench").

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Examples

  • ** Cash only, or bank to bank** I will not accept any Cashier check of any kind.

    NASIOC 2009

  • The word bank reached new heights following the successful commercial enterprises of the East India Company.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The word bank reached new heights following the successful commercial enterprises of the East India Company.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • It brings a whole new movie -- meaning to the term bank branch.

    CNN Transcript Jul 8, 2007 2007

  • 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.

    USATODAY.com News 2011

  • The word bank comes from "banco," the bench on which itinerant merchants traded.

    News 2012

  • 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

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • As exhausting as this journey must have been for the word bank, it has served English-speakers well, and richly.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • 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

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • As exhausting as this journey must have been for the word bank, it has served English-speakers well, and richly.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The ‘bank’ was a short coal-face about ten yards wide and usually worked by two men, the filler and the trammer.

    Joe Kenyon · Working Underground · LRB 27 November 1997 Joe Kenyon 2020

  • Bischoff explains that there’s a loophole in marketing schemes that makes them susceptible to bank drops—a dark web term that refers to using bank accounts with stolen or fraudulent credentials for money laundering.

    There’s a thriving black market for selfies with passports The A.V. Club 2022

Comments

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  • Means "bench" in Dutch.

    July 13, 2009

  • Same origin, TBT.

    July 18, 2009