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lank

adj
/ˈlæŋk//ˈleɪ̯ŋk/CA

Etymology

From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain).

  1. derived from *kleng-✻ — “to bend, turn, wind, twist”
  2. inherited from *hlankaz✻ — “lank, thin”
  3. inherited from *hlank✻
  4. inherited from hlanc
  5. inherited from lank

Definitions

  1. Slender or thin

    Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.

    • Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o’erteemed loins, A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
    • 1724-5, Jonathan Swift, “A Receipt. To Restore Stella’s Youth” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Henry Washbourne, 1841, Volume 1, p. 687, Meagre and lank with fasting grown, And nothing left but skin and bone;

  2. Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity.

    • The Captain was inclined to be bald, but he brought a quantity of lank iron-grey hair over his pate, and had a couple of whisps of the same falling down on each side of his face.

  3. Straight and flat

    Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.)

    • Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizled, and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the fore-parts of their legs and feet […]
    • She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features—so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Languid

      Languid; drooping, slack.

      • The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus’ hall; Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe […]

    2. To become lank.

      • […] on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look on: and all this— It wounds thine honour that I speak it now— Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek So much as lank’d not.

    3. A clump of lank hair.

      • Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and, his auburn hair coming down in glossy lanks over his right temple, his striped tie dangling out of the front of his gray jacket, his bulky gray-flanneled knees parted, zestfully opened the book.

    4. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

lanken, lankish, lanklet, lankly, lankness, lanksome, lanky

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for lank. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA