Lank

Quick meaning: Lank is an adjective meaning Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.

Meaning

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

More Meanings

1. (of hair) Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.)
2. A clump of lank hair.
3. (obsolete) Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity.
4. (obsolete) Languid; drooping, slack.
5. (rare, intransitive) To become lank.

Example Sentences

Blacks in the fields, lank and stooped, their fingers spiderlike among the bolls of cotton.

[…] while I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine, lank fingers came feeling over my face, and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour.

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.

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;

Word Forms

• lanker
• lankest
• lanks
• lanking
• lanked

Synonyms for lank

Depending on context, synonyms include lithe, svelte, willowy, insufficient, scarce, sparse.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include thin, spindly, lean, long, gaunt, slunken.

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