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Shank   Listen
noun
Shank  n.  
1.
The part of the leg from the knee to the foot; the shin; the shin bone; also, the whole leg. "His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank."
2.
Hence, that part of an instrument, tool, or other thing, which connects the acting part with a handle or other part, by which it is held or moved. Specifically:
(a)
That part of a key which is between the bow and the part which enters the wards of the lock.
(b)
The middle part of an anchor, or that part which is between the ring and the arms.
(c)
That part of a hoe, rake, knife, or the like, by which it is secured to a handle.
(d)
A loop forming an eye to a button.
3.
(Arch.) The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.
4.
(Founding) A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
5.
(Print.) The body of a type.
6.
(Shoemaking) The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
7.
(Zool.) A wading bird with long legs; as, the green-legged shank, or knot; the yellow shank, or tattler; called also shanks.
8.
pl. Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
Shank painter (Naut.), a short rope or chain which holds the shank of an anchor against the side of a vessel when it is secured for a voyage.
To ride shank's mare, to go on foot; to walk.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Shank" Quotes from Famous Books



... the neckband together at the back. Below the button the shirt billowed open, showing his naked back. His wooden leg stuck straight out to the side, its worn brass tip carrying a blob of red mud, and his good leg dangled down straight, with the trousers hitched half-way up the bare shank and a soiled white-yarn sock falling down into the wrinkled and gaping top of an ancient ...
— The Escape of Mr. Trimm - His Plight and other Plights • Irvin S. Cobb

... to receive the guiding rib of the carriage, shown in Fig. 9, and a transverse groove running half way across, to receive a slitting gauge, as shown in Fig. 8. The table is supported by a standard or shank, which fits into the tool-rest socket. The saw mandrel is supported between the centers of the lathe, and the saw projects more or less through a slot formed in the table. The gauge serves to guide the work to be slotted, and other kinds of work may be placed on or against the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 312, December 24, 1881 • Various

... an' I do. Why yu—yu—yu reckon yu kin shame me 'fore that hull train? Yu sneak out this-away, meetin' this spindle-shank, no-'count States greenie who hain't sense enough to swing a bull whip an' ain't man enough to draw a gun? I've told yu an' I'm done tellin' yu. Now yu git. I've stood yore fast an' loose plenty. I mean business. Git! Whar yu'll be safe. I'll not ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin

... laid upon this napkin. Another, with different marks, but denominated "Levite," is laid upon the first: and a third, differently marked, and denominated "Priest," is laid upon the second. Upon this again a large dish is placed, and in this dish is a shank bone of a shoulder of lamb, with a small matter of meat on it, which is burnt quite brown on the fire. This is instead of the lamb roasted with fire. Near this is an egg, roasted hard in hot ashes, that it may not be broken, ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... seconds. Smoke was visible in every part of the horizon. Charley, Brown, and John, shot fourteen ducks, and increased this number towards evening to forty-six ducks, five recurvirostris, one small red-shank, and two spoon-bills: the latter were particularly fat, and, when ready for the spit, weighed better than three pounds; the black ducks weighed a pound and three-quarters. The Malacorhynchus was small, but in good condition, and the fat seemed to accumulate particularly ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt

... leather Gaed through the heather, Through a rock, through a reel, Through an auld spinning-wheel, Through a sheep-shank bane. Sic a man was never seen. Wha had he been? ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford

... instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck

... were called at an early hour on the following morning, and Jet set out immediately after breakfast with those who were to travel on "Shank's mare." ...
— Messenger No. 48 • James Otis

... necessary to shorten a rope temporarily and not desirable to cut it, and the sheep-shank knot solves the problem. It is used by the sailors, who do not believe in cutting ropes. It will stand a tremendous strain without slipping, but will loosen when held slack, and can be untied by a quick jerk of the two ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... I'se got a wife, an' I'se got a lot ob chillen somewhar in de 'Fed'racy; but I'll come wid you uns bime by, an' gedder up all I can fine. I'se 'll come 'long in de shank ob de ev'nin', mas'r, and guv yer a shakedown in my cabin, an' I'll watch while yer sleeps. Den I'll bring yer back heah befo' light in ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe

... he made of the finer tendons from the deer's shank. These he chewed until soft, then twisted them tightly into a cord having a permanent loop at one end and a buckskin strand at the other. While wet the string was tied between two twigs and rubbed smooth with spittle. Its diameter was one-eighth of an inch, its length ...
— Hunting with the Bow and Arrow • Saxton Pope

... but company's got to be handled different, be it upstairs or down, for the name of the 'ouse, but when Mr. Jollie, the French valet that comes here frequent with the master's partner, wants dripped coffee and the fat scraped clean from his chop shank, else the flavour's spoiled for him, and Bruce the mistress' brother's man wants boiled coffee, and thick fat left on his breakfast ham, what stands between my poor 'ead and a h'assleyum? that's what I wants to know. Three cooks I've had ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright

... into small pieces. He would not show me the tackle he intended using, so I was quite in the dark as to what manner of gear it was. But I ascertained later on that it was good and strong enough to hold any deep sea fish, and the hook was of the right sort—a six-inch flatted, with curved shank, and swivel mounted on to three feet of fine twisted steel seizing wire. My obstinate friend had a keen eye, even when he was most disparaging in his remarks, and had copied my La'heu tackle most successfully, although he had "bosh-ed" it ...
— The Call Of The South - 1908 • Louis Becke

... come out with such a name. Knave in your teeth, Mr. Sheridan! 'tis both a shame and a sin; And the Dean, my master, is an honester man than you and all your kin: He has more goodness in his little finger than you have in your whole body: My master is a personable man, and not a spindle-shank hoddy doddy. And now, whereby I find you would fain make an excuse, Because my master, one day, in anger, call'd you a goose: Which, and I am sure I have been his servant four years since October, And he never call'd me worse than sweet-heart, drunk or sober: Not that I know ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... inthe house appeared ever to pay even a casual visit to any other room. This kitchen was vast and barn-like, forty feet long at least, and proportionately wide; the roof was of reeds, and the hearth, placed in the centre of the floor, was a clay platform, fenced round with cows' shank-bones, half buried and standing upright. Some trivets and iron kettles were scattered about, and from the centre beam, supporting the roof, a chain and hook were suspended to which a vast iron pot was fastened. One more article, a spit about six feet long for roasting meat, completed the list ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson

... into English and rubbing a musquito off of her well-tanned shank with the sole of her foot, "tis Mizziz Ri-i-i-ly what live there. She jess move een. She's got a lill baby.—Oh! you means dat lady what was in de ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... if your ladyship will wear her dress,' she flustered. 'But who is tall enow? Cicely is too long in the shank. Bess's shoulders are too broad. Alack! God help me! I will do what I can'—and she waved ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford

... in the world. For some reason we called him the Electrical Captain. I was in the vicinity, and it fell to me to dress him for the last parade. I took his uniform and began to attach the epaulettes to it. There's a cord, you know, that's drawn through the shank of the epaulette buttons, and after that the two ends of this cord are shoved through two little holes under the collar, and on the inside—the lining—are tied together. Well, I go through all this business, and tie the cord with a slipknot, and, you know, the loop won't come out, nohow—either ...
— Yama (The Pit) • Alexandra Kuprin

... made man, without an ounce of superfluous flesh on his body, his face burned a dark brick colour by constant exposure to the weather, red hair and beard turning grey, honest blue eyes that look you ever in the face, huge hands with wrist bones like the shank of a ham, and a voice that hurled his salutations across two fields, he suggested the moor rather than the drawing-room. But what a clever hand it was in an operation, as delicate as a woman's, and what a kindly voice it ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren

... the entrance into the harbour, where the anchor had been deposited. I found it to be neither so large nor so perfect as I expected. It had originally weighed seven hundred pounds, according to the mark that was upon it; but the ring, with part of the shank and two palms, were now wanting. I was no longer at a loss to guess the reason of Opoony's refusing my present. He doubtless thought that it so much exceeded the value of the anchor in its present state, that I should be displeased when I saw it. Be ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr

... know? I fancied everyone kenned. Else why the devil should they stare like that? And when you, too, looked ... Nay, how could you learn? I'm davered, surely: Seppy Shank's rum Has gone to my noddle: drink's the very devil On an empty waim: and I never had a head. What have I done? Ay, wouldn't you like to ken, To holler ...
— Krindlesyke • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

... wished to enter into conversation with his companions, and addressed himself first to Fenella with a broad compliment of, "By the mass, ye dance rarely—ne'er a slut on the boards shows such a shank! I would be content to play to you till my throat were as dry as my whistle. Come, be a little free—old Rowley will not quit the Park till nine. I will carry you to Spring-Garden, and bestow sweet-cakes and a quart of Rhenish on both of you; ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... Angela Bohun, and the Demoiselle Elaine Courtemains, the former of these two being a young black sow with a white star in her forehead, and the latter a brown one with thin legs and a slight limp in the forward shank on the starboard side—a couple of the tryingest blisters to drive that I ever saw. Also among the missing were several mere baronesses—and I wanted them to stay missing; but no, all that sausage-meat had to be found; so servants were sent out with ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the scrags of mutton, remove the pith from the bones, and wipe with a damp cloth; break these and the shank bones into very small pieces; put them into an enamelled saucepan, well covered with cold water; add a teaspoonful of salt, stand on the stove, and when it boils up remove the scum very carefully. Add 1 dozen peppercorns, ...
— The Art of Living in Australia • Philip E. Muskett (?-1909)

... are going to say that the whole will be keyed together, and that the T-pattern nuts on a movable shank will be my method of attachment to the fixed portion next to the cam? Eh? So it is, but" (and here his eye brightened), "anyone could have arranged that. My particularity is that I have a freedom of movement even at the lowest speeds, and an accuracy ...
— First and Last • H. Belloc

... 'Your Uncle Diggory did well for himself, sure enough, and many a turkey and chine he's sent us at Christmas-time; but he started a-horseback, he did. He got the horse from his Uncle Diggory, and he was a rover too. Now, if you went, you'd have to go on Shank's mare, and them that go ...
— Oswald Bastable and Others • Edith Nesbit

... the brothons' (thick bed-coverings, then made in Mayo) 'without any for the night, nor any shift for bedding, but with an old yellow blanket with a thousand patches; he had a black trouser down to the ground with two hundred holes and forty pieces; he had long legs like the shank of a pipe, and a long great coat, for it is many the dab he put in his pocket. His coat was greasy, and it was no wonder, and an old grey hat as grey as snuff as it was many the day it was ...
— Poets and Dreamers - Studies and translations from the Irish • Lady Augusta Gregory and Others

... used on clothing, but they may be divided into two main classes according to the arrangement by which they are attached to the garment; in one class they are provided with a shank which may consist of a metal loop or of a tuft of cloth or similar material, while in the other they are pierced with holes through which are passed threads. To these two classes roughly correspond two broad differences in the method of manufacture, according as the buttons are composite ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various

... shank of a leg of veal, and cut gashes in the remainder. Make a dressing of bread, soaked soft in cold water, and mashed; season it with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs; chop a little raw pork fine, put it in the dressing, and if you have ...
— The American Housewife • Anonymous

... lazy, en he tell Brer Fox dat he got some udder fish fer ter fry. Brer Fox feel mighty sorry, he did, but he say he bleeve he try his han' enny how, en off he put. He wuz gone all day, en he had a monstus streak er luck, Brer Fox did, en he bagged a sight er game. Bimeby, to'rds de shank er de evenin', Brer Rabbit sorter stretch hisse'f, he did, en 'low hit's mos' time fer Brer Fox fer ter git 'long home. Den Brer Rabbit, he went'n mounted a stump fer ter see ef he could year Brer Fox comin'. He ain't bin dar long, ...
— Uncle Remus • Joel Chandler Harris

... of Brush's Mills, N.Y., has patented through the Scientific American Patent Agency an improved troller, the novel feature in which consists in attaching a float to the shank of the implement under the revolving blade, the object being to keep the troller near the surface of the water, where the fish may see it more readily, and whereby the liability of catching in weeds and ...
— Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 • Various

... after the paper is removed; but if they are already too deep, or are burnt, it will be impossible to finish clearly. Generally speaking, tools should hiss very slightly when put on the cooling pad. In cooling, care must be taken to put the shank of the tools on to the wet pad, as, if the end only is cooled, the heat is apt to run down again, and the tool will still be ...
— Bookbinding, and the Care of Books - A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians • Douglas Cockerell

... We can't get lost, you understand. With the exception of cutting across the shank of Cape Cod, if the cape still exists, we needn't ever get out of sight of salt water. And it will bring us surely ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... questions,—such as these:—Whether there be not a gradual deterioration of the primitive European stock under these influences; and, Whether it is not possible that the imported human breed may run out here, so that, some time or other, the resuscitated tribes of Algonquins and Hurons may show a long shank of the extinct Yankee, as they show the Dodo's foot at the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... forecastle, a tall, fine-looking, hard-a-weather fellow, was standing on the shank of the sheet anchor with his arms across, and his well varnished canvass hat drawn so much over his eyes that it was difficult to tell whether he was awake or merely dozing in the sun, as he leaned ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous

... Joe that I'll be there as quick as shank's horses can carry me," she said, turning away from the door, leaving Sol to gather what pleasure he was able ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden

... bow; His left arm straightens as the dexter bends, And his nerved knuckle with the gripe distends; Soft slides the reed back with the stiff drawn strand, Till the steel point has reacht his steady hand; Then to his keen fixt eye the shank he brings, Twangs the loud cord, the feather'd arrow sings. Picks off the pippin from the smiling boy, And Uri's rocks resound with shouts of joy. Soon by an equal dart the tyrant bleeds, The cantons league, the work of fate proceeds; Till Austria's titled ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow

... to her, and succeeded in taking all of them on board, but before we could get clear of the ship she again fell off, carrying us with her, and as she surged through the water nearly swamping us. At the same time flames reached the shank and stopper, when her remaining bower anchor fell over her sides, very nearly right down upon us. Just then, the cable caught our outer gunwale, over which it ran, apparently one sheet of fire. The flames were at the same time raging above ...
— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... her," said Madge. "But I'll wun out a gliff the night for a' that, to dance in the moonlight, when her and the gudeman will be whirrying through the blue lift on a broom-shank, to see Jean Jap, that they hae putten intill the Kirkcaldy Tolbooth—ay, they will hae a merry sail ower Inchkeith, and ower a' the bits o' bonny waves that are poppling and plashing against the rocks in the gowden glimmer o' the moon, ye ken.—I'm ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... a spindle-shank chair that matched her escritoire, and betrayed her impatient humour by the quick tapping of one exquisitely shod foot. And the others seemed to wait upon her pleasure in a silence almost of subjugation—a nervous, ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance

... very useful to me, especially as the boy fascinated me so, for I used to watch him with it till I knew that he had two brass shank-buttons and three four-holes of bone on his jacket, that there were no buttons at all on his shirt, and that he had blue eyes, a snub-nose, and had lost one ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... Tie the Reef, Bowline, Clove-hitch and Sheep-shank knots according to instructions given in Handbook, and tell use ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... flock could rank?— Sae hale and hearty every shank! Nae poison'd soor Arminian stank He let them taste; Frae Calvin's well, aye clear, drank,— ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... done by hand. A movement toward economy in this respect was, indeed, made some sixty years ago, by Charles, the third Earl Stanhope, inventor of the Stanhope Press, and of the process of stereotyping which is still in use. His plan was to make the type-shank thicker than usual, and cast two or more letters upon its face instead of one. This, his Lordship rightly considered, would save labor, if only available combinations could be determined; since, using such types, it would frequently happen that the compositor would need to make but one movement ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 • Various

... o' England wares, as Manchester wares, Sheffield wares, and Newcastle earthenware, as cheap as you can at Liverpool—And we are making a fair spell at cottons and muslins—Na, na! let every herring hing by its ain head, and every sheep by its ain shank, and ye'll find, sir, us Glasgow folk no sae far ahint but what we may follow.—This is but poor entertainment for you, Mr. Osbaldistone" (observing that I had been for some time silent); "but ye ken cadgers maun ...
— Rob Roy, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... the approach of the Master, who said to him, 'In youth not humble as befits a junior; in manhood, doing nothing worthy of being handed down; and living on to old age:— this is to be a pest.' With this he hit him on the shank with his staff. CHAP. XLVI. 1. A youth of the village of Ch'ueh was employed by Confucius to carry the messages between him and his visitors. Some one asked about him, saying, 'I suppose he has made great progress.' ...
— The Chinese Classics—Volume 1: Confucian Analects • James Legge

... it, Joe. Take a leaf out of my book and let the young fellows 'tend to business for you. Don't let worry ride over you in the shank of your old age, my boy. I never do. Haven't paid a bit of attention to business in the last ten years, and that's why at my ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne

... Peters, and the men made fast to the line. Then ensued an hour of the wildest excitement, for the shark fought gamely, but he could not bite through the big steel shank of the hook, and was finally drawn alongside. Peters finished him with a revolver bullet, and the Kanakas dined on ...
— The Pirate Shark • Elliott Whitney

... a "trowel palette-knife," which has a bent shank, making the blade and the handle on different levels, so that as you press the blade to the canvas, the fingers are kept away from the painted surface. The shank should be round, and the blade very fine and flexible. The knife should balance nicely ...
— The Painter in Oil - A complete treatise on the principles and technique - necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors • Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst

... flame, in a carriage. My wife and I are going on a load of hay. Jim Boyd is the only other man here that's got a rig with springs under it. The aristocracy of Monterey County, a lot of it, will ride plugs or shank's mares. You're getting up among 'em, Jakey, my boy. Never thought of this when you were ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... is visited upon their children because they have not the intelligence and agility to get out of the way. Or perhaps they lack that tranquil courage upon which Miss Guiney relies to avert the canine tooth from her own inedible shank. ...
— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

... being now quite easy as to my future actions, I gave thought to the first step. That was supper. There seemed to me no adequate reason, with a fine, long night before me, why I shouldn't use a little of the shank end of it to stoke up for the rest. So I turned at the right-hand fork and jogged ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White

... springing up, in the morning, to north north-east, they set all the sail they could, and forced through a great deal of very heavy ice. The ships, it is true, often struck excessively hard; and the Racehorse, with one stroke, broke the shank of the best bower anchor; but, about noon, they had the unspeakable happiness to get through all the ice, and were safely out ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison

... his men worked strenuously, and at break of dawn on the morrow they returned to their toils. By noon a gigantic iron hook, forged by the skipper himself, with a shank as thick as a strong man's arm and fully four feet long, had been set firmly in the face of the cliff. The skipper and five or six of his men stood at the edge of the barren, above the cliff and the harbor, wiping the sweat from their ...
— The Harbor Master • Theodore Goodridge Roberts

... was bald of flesh and of hair, His body was lean and lank; His joints at each stir made a crack, and the cur Took a gnaw, by the way, at his shank. ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... Kolbiorn's skill, but promptly prepared to follow his example. Throwing off his red silk cloak, lest, by falling into the sea, he should injure it, he climbed overboard, and without hesitation dropped down upon the square shank of the aftermost oar; then going out near to the blade, he ran forward with quick, well measured strides. Once or twice, as the oars were dipped, he faltered and nearly lost his balance, but he reached the foremost one without accident, and returned with greater ease. When he again stepped upon ...
— Olaf the Glorious - A Story of the Viking Age • Robert Leighton

... you villain? You find that you cannot as soon as you find that you are not winning? Thrash him, you fellows!" And as he spoke Nozdrev grasped the cherrywood shank of his pipe. Chichikov turned as white as a sheet. He tried to say something, but his quivering lips emitted no sound. "Thrash him!" again shouted Nozdrev as he rushed forward in a state of heat and perspiration ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... hand tools, always pick out those with handles in which the grain does not run out at the point where there will be much strain in using the tool. In rakes, hoes, etc., get the types with ferrule and shank one continuous piece, so as not to be ...
— Home Vegetable Gardening • F. F. Rockwell

... the engineman who saw all from the engine house, as he rushed out of the door, calling to the pit-head workers. "Mag Robertson has flung hersel' doon the shank!" and immediately ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh

... the bit under his jaw and, throwing the Bay Eagle against him, wedged the horse and Jud in between El Mahdi and himself. Ump was neither afraid of the living nor the dead. He called to me, and I seized the Cardinal's bit on my side, gripping the iron shank with my ...
— Dwellers in the Hills • Melville Davisson Post

... to the bones, and taught them in a few words their nature and uses, as the pillars and safeguards of the body;—the shank, the joint, and the ligaments, forming the branches of this part of the analysis. He then led them to imagine these bones clothed with the fleshy parts, or muscles, of which the mass, the ligaments, and the sinews, formed the branches. He explained the nature of their contraction; and shewed ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... work of a few minutes to split them up the backs, skin down to the toe joints and cut them off there. Dry them with or without salting and they are easily packed up to carry home or send to the taxidermist. If one foot and shank is received in the flesh it will aid in mounting them up as racks, furniture legs, etc., as for such purposes the skin is mounted over a piece of wood of the size and shape of the skinned leg. For ...
— Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit • Albert B. Farnham

... slide, also provided with a vernier graduated as before, with a thumb-screw to secure it firmly; in its centre there is a sliding-point, moving vertically, with a thumb-screw to fasten it. Above the foot of each branch there is a slit to receive the shank of a plate, on the end of which a thread is cut; the lower edge of the plate forms a right angle with the branch, and the plate is fastened to the branch by a nut, at a point from the end equal to the semi-diameter of the trunnion, which ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... ride for Gissing. A silk hat is the least stable apparel for swift motoring, and the chauffeur drove at high speed. The Bishop, leaning back in the open tonneau, crossed one delicately slender shank over another, gazed in a kind of ecstasy at the countryside, and talked gaily about his days as a young curate. Gissing sat holding his hat on. He saw only too well that, by the humiliating oddity of chance, they were going to take the road that led exactly ...
— Where the Blue Begins • Christopher Morley

... the shank of the evenin'. Jim, I ain't so blind that I can't see through an open window. It ain't the lateness that makes you want to leave so sudden. Is there some trouble between you and Caroline? Course, it's none of my business, and ...
— Cap'n Warren's Wards • Joseph C. Lincoln

... a dweller among the Himalayas—in Sylhet and Nepaul. Its general colour is black, with a white mark, shaped like the letter Y; so placed that the shank of the letter is upon its breast, and the forks running up the front of its shoulders. It is not carnivorous, and, generally, its disposition is harmless and ...
— Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found - A Book of Zoology for Boys • Mayne Reid

... a great number of old relicts of one St. Martin. They had his scull enclosed (give his scull and not of some theife it may be) in a bowll of beaten silver. In a selver[83] besyde was shank bones, finger bones and such like wery religiously keipt. He showed us among others also a very massy silver crosse watered over wt gold very ancient, which he said was gifted them by a Englishman. I on that enquired whow they might call him. He could not tell til he cost up his book of memorials ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder

... Mr. Traill's place at two o'clock the landlord stood in shirt-sleeves and apron in the open doorway with Bobby, the little dog gripping a mutton shank in his mouth. ...
— Greyfriars Bobby • Eleanor Atkinson

... break I have little fear of its being cut through, for there is a long shank to the hook, and the line has never been slack," answered David, hauling ...
— Adrift in a Boat • W.H.G. Kingston

... in arresting the yawl, and taking her and her tubs to the Custom House. Later on he made a thorough search of her, and found a creeping-iron which had five prongs and a long shank. The reader is well aware that such an implement was used by the smugglers but never found on board a genuine fishing-craft. For getting up sunken tubs it was essential, and for that purpose it was evidently on board the Daisy. Moreover, it was found to be both wet ...
— King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 • E. Keble Chatterton

... well-ascertained fact, that the German word Geige is derived from the Gigue of the French Minstrels, who, during the 13th and 14th centuries, had a sort of Rebec which they called by that name, and which, according to some commentators, resembled in outward appearance the shank of a goat or ram, called Gigot, and hence the origin of all the similar words occurring in different European languages. These commentators have, however, neglected to prove that the old French word Gigue occurs before the 13th century, or that it ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart

... shields had painted on each a horse, the battle-axes were of the pattern always seen in pictures of the legendary Amazons. The blade of each axe-head was shaped like a crescent moon. From the inner side projected a flat, thick shank, by which the blade was fastened to the helve. The curve of each blade made almost a half circle, the tips of the crescents almost touched the haft between them, so that their outer cutting-edges made a nearly complete circle of razor-sharp steel, from which protruded the ...
— The Unwilling Vestal • Edward Lucas White

... each eye, Noctivagous ghouls haste to stroke Each goblin shank of hoary sage. Then pomp of gloom breaks into bloom, The Temple's arch cracks as we sigh, A clashing sound above that spoke Blind wrath unto each Wizard's rage, Revealed the chasm of stark Doom. Unto the peaks and gables black, Syrian airs like Orpheus Lull sequestered afrites ...
— Betelguese - A Trip Through Hell • Jean Louis de Esque

... be visited. Everything now was to be green lanes, majestic trees, old mansions, venerable castles, and picturesque scenery. There is no way of seeing a country properly except on foot. By railway you whiz past and see nothing. Even by coach the best parts of the scenery are unseen. "Shank's naig" is the best of all methods, provided you have time. I had still some days to spare before the conclusion of my holiday. I therefore desired to see some of the beautiful scenery and objects of antiquarian interest ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth

... eaten in, that the sides sloped inward at the top, as if to personate a bishop's mitre; a fishing line was wound about this graceful and, if its appearance belied it not most foully, odoriferous headdress; and into the fishing line was stuck the bowl and some two inches of the shank of a well-sooted pipe. An old red handkerchief was twisted rope-wise about his lean and scraggy neck, but it by no means sufficed to hide the scar of what had evidently been a most appalling gash, extending right across his throat, almost from ear to ear, the great ...
— Warwick Woodlands - Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago • Henry William Herbert (AKA Frank Forester)

... Dunn, Joe Bovard, and Andy Shank. Joe Bovard had been in the service from the beginning of the war. He was over six feet in height, a good-natured, manly fellow. George Dunn extended upward to an altitude of at least six feet and a half, ...
— In The Ranks - From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House • R. E. McBride

... to what had been my uncle's bed-room and was now mine, had on its walls trophies of hunting-spears and other weapons of the chase. Agathemer selected two knives for killing wounded stags, dependable implements, blade and shank one piece of fine steel, the handles of stag- horn, fastened on with ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... Mr. White and Mr. Stebbing say that he need not; but he is quite determined, though he has got his arm in a sling, for he says it was all his fault for going where he ought not. And he won't have the carriage, for he says it would shake his bones ever so much more than Shank's mare.' ...
— Beechcroft at Rockstone • Charlotte M. Yonge

... and contraction, an index is fixed on the upper end of two of the slips; a plate of metal or wood is fastened to the front of the plinth, so as to cover the two slips from the eye. A slit, being nearly the portion of a circle, is cut in this plate, so that the shank of the index may play freely through its whole range. On the edge of the slit is a graduation. The objection to this instrument is, that it is not fit for comparative observations, because no two pieces ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson

... and a half in length, fastened by faufee fiber, with a few hog's bristles inserted. The line was drove through the hole where the barb was fastened and, being braided along the inner side of the pearl shank, was tied again at the top, forming a chord to the arch. Thus when the beguiled dolphin took the hook and strained the line, he secured himself more firmly ...
— White Shadows in the South Seas • Frederick O'Brien

... had a son named Thjalfi, and a daughter, Roeska. Thor told them to throw the bones into the goatskins, which were spread out near the hearth, but young Thjalfi, in order to get at the marrow, broke one of the shank bones with his knife. Having passed the night in this place, Thor rose early in the morning, and having dressed himself, held up his hammer, Mjolnir, and thus consecrating the goatskins; he had no sooner done it than the two goats took again their usual form, only one ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends; Scandinavian • Various

... eh, sirs!" cried I, "whatna gaits' that to steer a bodie, wad ye harry a puir chiel o' a' his warldly gear, shame till ye, shame till ye, shank yoursell's awa." ...
— The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction - Vol. X, No. 289., Saturday, December 22, 1827 • Various

... the Records, Keiko was ten feet two inches high, and his shank measured four feet one inch. His nomination as Prince Imperial was an even more arbitrary violation of the right of primogeniture than the case of his predecessor had been, for he was chosen in preference to his elder brother merely because, when the two youths were casually questioned as to what ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... had Silver learned. Chief of these was to start with the jigger. Sleeping or waking, lying or standing, the summons that stirred the men from snoring ease to tense, rapid action, never failed to find Silver alert. As the halter shank slipped through the bit-ring that same instant found Silver gathered for the rush through the long narrow lane leading from his open stall to the poles, above which, like great couchant spiders, waited the harnesses pendant on the hanger-rods. ...
— Horses Nine - Stories of Harness and Saddle • Sewell Ford

... buckskin laced around my calves, and my beautiful soft buckskin shirt tucked in at the waist I began to feel like a real Nimrod, but after I added my "Moo-loch-Capo," the shooting jacket with elk-teeth buttons, pulled a pair of shank moccasins over my feet and donned a cap made of lynx skin, I was as happy as a child with its Christmas stocking. It was a really wonderful suit of clothing; the hair of the elk hide was on the outside, and not only made the coat and breeches warmer, but ...
— The Black Wolf Pack • Dan Beard

... and muzzle of the barrel. On the opposite side of the tube were two more flanges, close together, into the holes of which was inserted the end of a specially made harpoon, having an eye twisted in its shank through which the whale line was spliced. The whole machine was fitted to a neat pole, and strongly secured to it by means of a "gun warp," or short piece of thin line, by which it could be hauled back into the ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... 16th, continual rain, and hard gales all night at S.W. This morning the carpenter came on board, and acquainted us that he saw an anchor of seven feet in the shank, the palm of each arm filed off just above the crown: This anchor we suppose to have belonged to some small vessel wreck'd on the coast. The cutter brought off abundance of shell-fish ready dress'd for ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr

... Roast-beef bones, or shank bones of ham, make fine peas-soup; and should be boiled with the peas the day before eaten, that the fat may be ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs

... above sea-level, almost three hundred feet higher than Pike's Peak, and cannot be scaled by means of a cog-wheel railway or any other contrivance that uses steam or electricity as a motor. Indeed, the only motor available at the time of our ascent—that is, for the final climb—was "shank's horses," very useful and mostly safe, even if a little plebeian. We had been wise enough not to plunge at once among the heights, having spent almost a week rambling over the plains, mesas, foothills, ...
— Birds of the Rockies • Leander Sylvester Keyser

... man from the North. 'I'm rare an' lucky that it's to be ma richt leg an' no the left, for that richt shank o' mine was aye a wee thing crookit at the knee, and didna dae credit tae the airchitecture o' ...
— The Parts Men Play • Arthur Beverley Baxter

... however, to be obtained by bait fishing, and on the day when I killed the 'lunge Ben took me out in the evening equipped with the correct tackle for bass. It consisted of a single piece of bamboo, about 15 ft. long, a strong line a few inches longer, a bung as float, and a hook with 2-in. shank, and gape of about 3/4 in. You will remember this kind of rig-out, only with hook of moderate size, as often used by Midland yokels in bream fishing. It is delightfully primitive. Heavily leaded, you swing out the line to its full extent, and, hooking a fish, haul him in without the ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior

... up nicely, but the shank of the screw was about two hundred below zero centigrade, and far brittler ...
— The Trouble with Telstar • John Berryman

... that explains itself, and perhaps the more readily for its confusion (in this sense) with worry, see E.D.D. where it is given as adjective and verb, the latter used by Scott in 'Midlothian'. 'Her and the gude-man will be whirrying through the blue lift on a broom-shank.' In the Century Dictionary, with its pronunciation hwer'i, it is described as dialectal form of whirr or of hurry, to fly rapidly with ...
— Society for Pure English, Tract 5 - The Englishing of French Words; The Dialectal Words in Blunden's Poems • Society for Pure English

... liquor, and the skin should not be removed until the meat is entirely cold, taking care not to break or tear the fat. Brush over the ham with beaten egg, strew it thickly with very fine bread crumbs, and brown in a quick oven. Arrange a frill of paper around the bone of the shank, and surround the ham with water-cress, or ...
— Recipes Tried and True • the Ladies' Aid Society

... trout seemed as if they could not have too much of these abominable wretches, and the flies were blown across the loch, not singly, but in populous groups. I had never seen anything like them in any hook-book, nor could I deceive the trout by the primitive dodge of tying a red thread round the shank of a dark fly. So I waded out, and fell to munching a frugal sandwich and watching Nature, not without ...
— Angling Sketches • Andrew Lang

... figure that approached him. "For three days my food has been forgotten; and bad as it was, I missed it. There came a great rumble, and my walls fell down. Ancient Jerry, I can go no further. I am empty as a shank bone when the marrow-toast is serving. Your duty was to feed me, with inferior stuff at ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. SHAKESPEARE, As You Like ...
— Practical English Composition: Book II. - For the Second Year of the High School • Edwin L. Miller

... carry it away. In this extremity the captain ordered the anchor to be hove up, but this was not easily accomplished, and when at last it was hove up to the bow, both flukes were found to have been broken off, and the shank was polished bright with ...
— The World of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne

... said the poor-law officers were dealing out food. He could recall her coming back next day, wild-eyed with hunger and the fever; the officers had refused her relief because her bare legs were not wholly shrunken to the bone. "While there's a calf on the shank, there's no starvation," they had explained to her. The girl died without profiting by this official apothegm. The boy found it burned ineffaceably upon his brain. Now, after a lapse of more than forty years, it seemed the thing that he ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic

... still more pleased when the elk killed yesterday was brought into camp. This was the first elk we had killed on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, and condemned as we have been to the dried fish, it formed a most nourishing food. After eating the marrow of the shank-bones, the squaw chopped them fine, and by boiling extracted a pint of grease, superior to the tallow itself of the animal. A canoe of eight Indians, who were carrying down wappatoo-roots to trade with the Clatsops, stopped at our camp; we bought ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks

... unconcerned. Soon, however, he seemed to feel fatigue, for he drew his feet and head within his shell, which he tightly closed, and after that no poking or prodding had the desired effect. "I suspect we must depend on shank's mares for a time," said Bearwarden, cheerfully, as they scrambled down. "We can now see," said Cortlandt, "why our friend was so unconcerned, since he has but to draw himself within himself to become invulnerable to ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor

... chronicler's. Its Death's-head bowl forming its latter end, continually reminding him of his own. Its shank was an ostrich's leg, some feathers still waving nigh ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (of 2) • Herman Melville

... private who raises his knee the highest and sticks his shank out ahead of him the straightest, and slams his foot down the hardest and jars his brain the painfulest, is promoted to be a corporal and given a much heavier pair of shoes, so that he may make more noise and in time utterly destroy his reason. The goosestep ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb

... one. Some chicken soup was at one time ordered for a patient by the doctor; a prisoner (a famous physician), a deputy of the doctor, happened to be at the tuberculosis camp when the soup arrived from the kitchen. It consisted of some warm water with the shank—not the drumstick, but the shank and foot—of a fowl in it. This aroused his interest, and twice again he was present when a chicken soup prescribed appeared at the camp. On both occasions—he stands ready so to testify under oath—he found the same foot and shank ...
— The Subterranean Brotherhood • Julian Hawthorne



Words linked to "Shank" :   leg, nail, golf, hindshank, cut of meat, sura, hold, ungulate, cylinder, calf, anchor, hit, hoofed mammal, animal leg, cut, handgrip, foreshank, waist, grip, golf game, sole, swing, body part, portion, golf stroke



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