shanked

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of shank.

   Under pressure on the final hole, she shanked her approach shot into the trees.

   The prisoner was shanked with a sharpened toothbrush during a fight in the yard.

   Note

   What follows the verb tells you which shank is meant. With a ball or a shot as the object it is a mishit, in golf off the part of the club where head meets shaft. With a person as the object (he was shanked), it is slang for a stabbing with an improvised blade, or for having one's pants yanked down as a joke.

2. 2
   adjective

   Provided with a shank, such as the loop on the back of a button.

   Shanked buttons sit up off the fabric, leaving room for the thick wool underneath.

   Hikers often prefer shanked boots, which keep the sole stiff on rocky ground.

3. 3
   adjective

   Affected by disease of the shank or footstalk, the stalk that holds a fruit, flower or leaf.

   The grower snipped off the shanked clusters so they would not spoil the rest of the crop.

   Under the leaves, several bunches were shanked, their stalks brown and shriveled.

   Note

   Grape growers use it when the little stalk holding a bunch or a berry withers and cuts off its supply, so the fruit stays sour and watery and never ripens. The Garden in 1904 sets it beside scalding, an injury to the berries themselves, and judges shanking the harder of the two to put right.

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