# bank

Pronunciation: say "BANGK" /bæŋk/

## Noun

1. An organization that keeps and lends money and provides other financial services, or one of its local branches where customers go in person.
   - Simple: A business that keeps and lends money, or one of its offices where people go to do this.
   - _She asked the bank for a loan to expand her shop._
   - _Several banks raised their interest rates this year._
2. The sloping edge of land bordering a river, lake, or other watercourse.
   - Simple: The land along the edge of a river, lake, or stream.
   - _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._
3. A secure, guaranteed place for storing and retrieving important items or goods.
   - Simple: A safe place where important things are kept and can be taken out when needed.
   - _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._
4. A slope or raised mass of earth, sand, or similar material; an embankment.
   - Simple: A raised slope of earth, sand, or other material.
   - _Snow piled against the bank beside the highway._
   - _Workers shaped the bank to support the new railway line._
7. A small container used for storing coins or currency.
   - Simple: A small container for saving coins or money at home.
   - _Every night she emptied her pockets into the bank on the shelf._
   - _The old tin bank was full of pennies._
5. A 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.
   - Simple: A row or group of the same kind of things, like screens, switches or keys, placed together.
   - _The sound engineer adjusted a bank of sliders on the mixing desk._
   - _Engineers monitored a bank of screens in the control room._
6. A raised area of the seabed where the water is shallower than around it, often formed of sand, gravel, or mud.
   - Simple: A raised part of the sea floor, often of sand or gravel, where the water is shallow.
   - _Cod were once abundant on the bank off the coast._
   - _Sailors charted every bank to avoid running aground._
12. Money or profit, especially a large amount. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A lot of money or profit.
   - _The movie made bank during its opening weekend._
   - _He's pulling in real bank with the new business._
14. The sideways tilt or incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
   - Simple: The sideways tilt of an airplane, especially when it turns.
   - _The pilot held a shallow bank throughout the wide turn._
   - _Passengers felt the bank as the aircraft curved toward the runway._
15. A broad mass of clouds grouped together.
   - Simple: A wide, thick mass of clouds in the sky.
   - _A low bank of clouds hid the mountain peaks all morning._
   - _Pilots climbed above the bank to find clear skies._
16. A fund built from deposits or contributions for transacting business; a pooled stock of capital.
   - Simple: A pool of money made from deposits, used to do business.
17. In gambling, the dealer or house who covers players' bets, or the store of money it holds to pay winners.
   - Simple: In a betting game, the dealer or house, or the money they keep to pay winners.
   - _When the bank was exhausted, the game paused for fresh funds._
   - _Each losing bet went straight into the dealer's bank._
19. A pool of unused pieces in games such as dominoes, from which players are allowed to draw.
   - Simple: A pile of extra game pieces that players can draw from.
   - _He took a new domino from the bank after failing to play._
   - _Each player draws from the bank until someone can move._

## Verb

8. Followed by on or upon: to depend on someone or something, or to feel sure that something will happen.
   - Simple: To feel sure you can trust someone or something, or 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._
9. To keep money in a bank, put it there, or do business with a particular bank.
   - Simple: To put money in a bank or use a particular bank.
   - _Most students bank online these days._
   - _He banks with a local credit union instead of a big national bank._
10. Of an aircraft or vehicle, to tilt sideways when turning, or to make it tilt in this way.
   - Simple: Of a plane or other vehicle, to lean to one side while turning, or to make it do this.
   - _The jet banked steeply to avoid the storm._
   - _Gliders bank gently to stay within a rising thermal._
11. To set aside a resource that is not money, such as hours, points, or recordings, to draw on later.
   - Simple: To save up something that is not money, like hours or points, so you can use it later.
   - _Employees may bank up to forty hours of overtime as paid leave._
   - _The crew banked several extra episodes before the writers went on strike._
13. To 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.
   - Simple: To pile up into a sloping heap, like snow or clouds, or to build a wall of earth around something.
   - _Storm clouds bank over the ridge as the pressure drops._
   - _Mist gathered and banked in the valley overnight._
18. To arrange or order things in a row.
   - Simple: To put things in a neat row or line.
   - _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._
20. To cover the glowing embers of a fire with ashes so that heat is retained.
   - Simple: To cover the hot coals of a fire with ash so they keep their heat.
   - _He banked the embers carefully so the cottage stayed warm overnight._
   - _Shepherds bank the fire with ash to keep it alive until dawn._
21. To provide banking services to a person, business, or organization.
   - Simple: To handle the money and accounts of a person or business.
   - _These institutions bank clients that smaller firms cannot serve._
   - _Few lenders were willing to bank the struggling startup._
22. To construct a road, track, or runway with a sideways tilt on a curve, so the outer edge sits higher than the inner one.
   - Simple: To build a road, track, or runway so that its outside edge is higher on a curve.
   - _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._
23. In 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.
   - Simple: To make a ball or puck hit something, like the board behind a basket, and then go in.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A contiguous block of memory of fixed, hardware-dependent size, often larger than a page, that does not overlap with other memory blocks.
- (noun) A rising stretch of railway track; an incline or hill that a train must climb.
- (verb) To give a train extra power for climbing an incline by attaching another locomotive.
- (verb) To hide something such as drugs or money inside the rectum, typically so it can be smuggled into or kept in prison.
- (noun) In a coal mine, the exposed wall of coal that miners are currently cutting.
- (noun) A body of coal or ore mined through workings that lie above water level.
- (noun) The surface area around the mouth of a mine shaft, where material is brought up and unloaded.
- (verb) To travel past a place by moving along its banks or shore.
- (noun) A rowers' bench in a galley or similar vessel, or a single row of oars set at one level.
- (noun) The seat in a courtroom where a judge or panel of judges sits to hear cases.
- (noun) A 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.
- (noun) A table or flat stand on which printers lay out sheets or type while working.
- (noun) On an organ or similar instrument, one complete tier of keys played by hand.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3, 7–9, 11–12, 16–17, 19, 21** — 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.
**Meanings 2, 4, 6, 10, 13–15, 20, 22–23** — 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.
**Meanings 5, 18** — 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bank (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).