bank
Pluralbanks
Pluralbanks
- 1An organization that keeps and lends money and provides other financial services, or one of its local branches where customers go in person.
She asked the bank for a loan to expand her shop.
Several banks raised their interest rates this year.
UsageCommon patterns: at the bank, go to the bank, a loan from the bank.
- 2The sloping edge of land bordering a river, lake, or other watercourse.
After three days of heavy rain, the creek spilled over its banks and flooded the nearby fields.
We spread a blanket on the grassy bank and watched the ducks drift downstream.
UsageUse on: on the bank of the river; a river overflows or bursts its banks.
Note
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar even gives a river her own banks to tremble under: "Tiber trembled underneath her banks."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Julius Caesar is a work by William Shakespeare. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in Julius Caesar, personifying the Tiber as female; Marullus speaks them in Act I, Scene One. en.wikisource.org
- 3A secure, guaranteed place for storing and retrieving important items or goods.
Scientists store frozen seeds from thousands of crops in a seed bank in case harvests ever fail.
The hospital runs a tissue bank where donated skin and bone are stored for surgery.
UsageNamed by what it holds: blood bank, seed bank, food bank.
Similarrepository, store, reserve
Note
The first word names what is kept. Bank supplies the promise that it is stored safely and can be drawn out again, carrying the financial institution's idea over to anything precious.
The hospital appealed for donors because its blood bank was running low.
Every survey record went into a central data bank.
- 4A slope or raised mass of earth, sand, or similar material; an embankment.
Snow piled against the bank beside the highway.
Workers shaped the bank to support the new railway line.
Similarembankment, slope, mound, ridge
- 5A row or set of similar things grouped together, such as switches, screens, lifts, the keys of an organ or typewriter, or targets on a pinball table.
The sound engineer adjusted a bank of sliders on the mixing desk.
Engineers monitored a bank of screens in the control room.
UsageMost often a bank of + plural: a bank of screens, a bank of switches.
Note
It stretches to people too, as when a BBC Sport report has a striker "blocked out by a bank of Villa defenders."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A BBC Sport report uses the quoted wording about a striker being blocked by Villa defenders. en.wiktionary.org
- 6A raised area of the seabed where the water is shallower than around it, often formed of sand, gravel, or mud.
Cod were once abundant on the bank off the coast.
Sailors charted every bank to avoid running aground.
Similarbar
Note
A sailor's bank lies under the water, as a rise in the seabed shallow enough to matter. In the plural it often names a whole region, as in the banks of Newfoundland. Some banks, like sandbanks and bars, are hazards to ships; others, like the Grand Banks, are broad shallows famous as fishing grounds.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- A marine bank is an underwater elevation with relatively shallow water above it. iho.int
- The banks of Newfoundland comprise a geographical region of underwater plateaus. en.wikipedia.org
- Sandbanks and bars can pose hazards to vessels. nps.gov
- The Grand Banks are relatively shallow underwater plateaus. en.wikipedia.org
- The Grand Banks are renowned fishing grounds. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 7A small container used for storing coins or currency.
Every night she emptied her pockets into the bank on the shelf.
The old tin bank was full of pennies.
UsageOften piggy bank for a child's coin box.
Similarmoneybox
- 8Followed by on or upon: to depend on someone or something, or to feel sure that something will happen.
The campaign is banking on strong support from young voters.
I wouldn't bank on the train being on time tonight.
UsageBank on + noun or -ing: don't bank on the train being on time.
- 9To keep money in a bank, put it there, or do business with a particular bank.
Most students bank online these days.
He banks with a local credit union instead of a big national bank.
UsageUse with or at: she banks with a credit union, banks at the town branch.
Note
Douglas Adams turns the construction into a character sketch in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979): "the sort of face you would happily bank with." When the institution is the subject and the customer is the object, the verb becomes the transitive finance use.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first published in 1979. panmacmillan.com
- Douglas Adams uses the quoted wording in the novel's narration to describe a character. libresinaloa.edu.mx
- 10Of an aircraft or vehicle, to tilt sideways when turning, or to make it tilt in this way.
The jet banked steeply to avoid the storm.
Gliders bank gently to stay within a rising thermal.
UsageOften with steeply, sharply or gently: the jet banked steeply.
Note
Whether the aircraft banks or the pilot banks it, the verb describes the roll that sets up a turn, and steeply, sharply and gently are its natural adverbs.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- An aircraft rolls, or banks, to initiate a turn. www1.grc.nasa.gov
- 11
- 12Money or profit, especially a large amount.
The movie made bank during its opening weekend.
He's pulling in real bank with the new business.
UsageCommon phrases include make bank, make good bank and make serious bank.
Similarmoney, cash, dough, bread
Note
Paul Bouchard's Enlistment (2010) translates it in passing: "making good bank with it—he was making good money." That is exactly the swap a listener makes.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Paul Bouchard wrote Enlistment. iuniverse.com
- Enlistment contains the quoted wording explaining making good bank as making good money. en.wiktionary.org
- 13To pile up, or be piled up, into a sloping mass, as with earth, snow, or clouds; also, to surround or protect something with a bank of earth.
Storm clouds bank over the ridge as the pressure drops.
Mist gathered and banked in the valley overnight.
UsageAlso bank up: snow banked up against the door.
Note
Clouds are its natural subject. They bank above a road or over a ridge, piling into a wall rather than spreading thin. Sandra Birdsell's The Chrome Suite catches the image: "clouds banking above the gravel road."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Sandra Birdsell's The Chrome Suite contains the quoted words “clouds banking above the gravel road.” en.wiktionary.org
- 14The sideways tilt or incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
The pilot held a shallow bank throughout the wide turn.
Passengers felt the bank as the aircraft curved toward the runway.
UsageAn aircraft goes into a bank or holds a steep bank.
Note
It comes from the same word as the slope of earth, and the image is easy to see. The wings tilt the way an embankment's face does.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The aviation noun and the noun meaning a slope of earth are senses of the same etymological word; Wiktionary groups both under Etymology 2. en.wiktionary.org
- 15
- 16A fund built from deposits or contributions for transacting business; a pooled stock of capital.
Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money.
1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Usury”Note
A collective sense: the money a group pools to trade with, rather than the place that keeps it. Francis Bacon's essay "Of Usury" (1625) sets it beside common stock: "let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money." The pairing shows how close bank then sat to the idea of shared capital.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Francis Bacon's essay "Of Usury" was first published in 1625. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in Bacon's "Of Usury" and pair bank with common stock. en.wikisource.org
- Bacon's use illustrates the historical sense of bank as shared capital. en.wiktionary.org
- 17In gambling, the dealer or house who covers players' bets, or the store of money it holds to pay winners.
When the bank was exhausted, the game paused for fresh funds.
Each losing bet went straight into the dealer's bank.
Note
Gambling uses the word for the money itself: the fund the dealer draws stakes from and pays losses out of. The same word also names the dealer or house that holds the fund, and context shows which is meant: money is counted and spent, while a banker sits at the table.
- 18To arrange or order things in a row.
In the control room, dozens of monitors were banked from floor to ceiling, each showing a different camera feed.
In the control room, monitors are banked along the far wall so the night crew can watch every camera at once.
UsageMostly passive: screens are banked along a wall.
- 19A pool of unused pieces in games such as dominoes, from which players are allowed to draw.
He took a new domino from the bank after failing to play.
Each player draws from the bank until someone can move.
Similarboneyard
- 20To cover the glowing embers of a fire with ashes so that heat is retained.
He banked the embers carefully so the cottage stayed warm overnight.
Shepherds bank the fire with ash to keep it alive until dawn.
- 21To provide banking services to a person, business, or organization.
These institutions bank clients that smaller firms cannot serve.
Few lenders were willing to bank the struggling startup.
UsageThe customer is the object, with no preposition: bank small firms. From the customer's side, say bank with.
Note
Finance turns the verb around. The customer's own view of the same relationship is "bank with".
- 22To construct a road, track, or runway with a sideways tilt on a curve, so the outer edge sits higher than the inner one.
Engineers plan to bank the highway's sharpest curve to cut down on rollover crashes.
The old racetrack was banked so steeply that fans could barely walk up the turns.
UsageMost often as an adjective: a banked curve, a steeply banked track.
Note
This sense is linked to the earthen slope: the outer edge of the curve is raised the way an embankment rises from flat ground. A banked road tilts under a car much as an aircraft leaning into a turn tilts the plane itself.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A banked curve has a raised outer edge. mechref.engr.illinois.edu
- An aircraft banks by tilting sideways into a turn. www1.grc.nasa.gov
- 23In sports, to send a ball or puck into a basket, pocket, or goal by rebounding it off a surface such as a backboard or cushion.
With two seconds left, he banked a jump shot off the glass to win the game.
The defenseman tried to bank the puck off the boards and into the empty net.
UsageOff names the surface, in or into the target: bank the ball off the backboard into the net.
Similarbounce
Note
The noun form is the bank shot, heard in basketball and in pool, where the rebound comes off a cushion.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- In pool, a bank shot rebounds off a cushion before reaching the pocket. en.wikipedia.org
- 24A contiguous block of memory of fixed, hardware-dependent size, often larger than a page, that does not overlap with other memory blocks.
- 25A rising stretch of railway track; an incline or hill that a train must climb.
- 26To give a train extra power for climbing an incline by attaching another locomotive.
- 27To hide something such as drugs or money inside the rectum, typically so it can be smuggled into or kept in prison.
- 28In a coal mine, the exposed wall of coal that miners are currently cutting.
- 29A body of coal or ore mined through workings that lie above water level.
- 30The surface area around the mouth of a mine shaft, where material is brought up and unloaded.
- 31To travel past a place by moving along its banks or shore.
Have I not heard these islanders shout out / Vive le roi! as I have banked their towns?
c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King John - 32A rowers' bench in a galley or similar vessel, or a single row of oars set at one level.
- 33The seat in a courtroom where a judge or panel of judges sits to hear cases.
- 34A session of a law court in which all its judges sit together to decide points of law, as opposed to a trial held before a jury.
- 35A table or flat stand on which printers lay out sheets or type while working.
- 36On an organ or similar instrument, one complete tier of keys played by hand.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
The deepest root is *bʰeg-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn, curve, bend," which led to Proto-Germanic *bankiz ("bench, counter") and Proto-West Germanic *banki. Lombardic bank ("bench, counter") passed into Italian as banca, meaning a "counter" or "moneychanger's bench or table," then into Middle French banque and Middle English banke. It is a doublet of bench.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts
- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-, meaning ‘to turn, curve, bend’, underlies Proto-Germanic *bankiz, meaning ‘bench, counter’. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-West Germanic *banki derives from Proto-Germanic *bankiz. en.wiktionary.org
- Lombardic bank meant ‘bench, counter’. en.wiktionary.org
- Italian banca was borrowed from Lombardic bank, which descended from Proto-West Germanic *banki. en.wiktionary.org
- Italian banca meant ‘counter, moneychanger's bench or table’. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle French banque derives from Italian banca. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle French banque passed into Middle English as banke. en.wiktionary.org
- Bank and bench are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-Germanic *bankô and Proto-West Germanic *bankō gave Old English *banca ("bench") and banc ("bank, hillock, embankment"), which led to Middle English bank. Old Norse bakki ("elevation, hill") and Norwegian bakke ("slope, hill") are akin to it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Proto-Germanic *bankô and Proto-West Germanic *bankō underlie Old English *banca, meaning bench, and banc, meaning bank, hillock, or embankment. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English forms led to Middle English bank. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Norse bakki meant elevation or hill and is related to bank. en.wiktionary.org
- Norwegian bakke means slope or hill and is related to bank. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-Germanic *bankiz ("bench") passed through Frankish *banki into Old French banc ("bench"), which gave Middle English bank. Old English benċ ("bench") is akin to it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Proto-Germanic *bankiz meant "bench" and gave Frankish *banki. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French banc, meaning "bench", came from Frankish *banki. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French banc gave Middle English bank. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English benċ meant "bench" and is cognate with this word. en.wiktionary.org