Lank

/ˈlæŋk/ · adjective

Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

1. Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.
2. (obsolete) Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity.
3. (of hair) Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.)
4. (obsolete) Languid; drooping, slack.
5. (rare, intransitive) To become lank.
6. A clump of lank hair.

Example Sentences

1700, Isaac Barrow, Sermon XXII “Of Industry in our particular Calling, as Scholars,” in The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, D.D., London: John Tillotson, 2nd edition, Volume III, p. 226, […] who would not chuse […] to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain […] ?

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;

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;

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.

[…] 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.

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

1659, Samuel Cradock, Knowledge & Practice, Or, A Plain Discourse of the Chief Things Necessary to be Known, Believ’d & Practised in order to Salvation, London: John Rothwell, Chapter 17, Of the Duties of the Rich, pp. 494-495, We should think him a very imprudent Husbandman, that to save a little seed at present, would sow so thin, as to spoil his crop. And the same folly ’twill be in us, if by the sparingness and niggardize of our Almes, we make our selves a lank Harvest hereafter, and lose the reward God hath provided for the liberal Almes-giver.

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.

Synonyms for lank

Antonyms for lank

Related Words

Word Forms

• lanker
• lankest
• lanks
• lanking
• lanked

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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