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Bank   /bæŋk/   Listen
noun
Bank, Bancus, Banc  n.  A bench; a high seat, or seat of distinction or judgment; a tribunal or court.
In banc, In banco (the ablative of bancus), In bank, in full court, or with full judicial authority; as, sittings in banc (distinguished from sittings at nisi prius).



Bank  n.  
1.
A mound, pile, or ridge of earth, raised above the surrounding level; hence, anything shaped like a mound or ridge of earth; as, a bank of clouds; a bank of snow. "They cast up a bank against the city."
2.
A steep acclivity, as the slope of a hill, or the side of a ravine.
3.
The margin of a watercourse; the rising ground bordering a lake, river, or sea, or forming the edge of a cutting, or other hollow. "Tiber trembled underneath her banks."
4.
An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shoal, shelf, or shallow; as, the banks of Newfoundland.
5.
(Mining)
(a)
The face of the coal at which miners are working.
(b)
A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
(c)
The ground at the top of a shaft; as, ores are brought to bank.
6.
(Aeronautics) The lateral inclination of an aeroplane as it rounds a curve; as, a bank of 45° is easy; a bank of 90° is dangerous.
7.
A group or series of objects arranged near together; as, a bank of electric lamps, etc.
8.
The tilt of a roadway or railroad, at a curve in the road, designed to counteract centrifugal forces acting on vehicles moving rapiudly around the curve, thus reducing the danger of overturning during a turn.
Bank beaver (Zool.), the otter. (Local, U.S.)
Bank swallow, a small American and European swallow (Clivicola riparia) that nests in a hole which it excavates in a bank.



Bank  n.  
1.
A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars. "Placed on their banks, the lusty Trojan sweep Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep."
2.
(Law)
(a)
The bench or seat upon which the judges sit.
(b)
The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at Nisi Prius, or a court held for jury trials. See Banc.
3.
(Printing) A sort of table used by printers.
4.
(Music) A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.



Bank  n.  
1.
An establishment for the custody, loan, exchange, or issue, of money, and for facilitating the transmission of funds by drafts or bills of exchange; an institution incorporated for performing one or more of such functions, or the stockholders (or their representatives, the directors), acting in their corporate capacity.
2.
The building or office used for banking purposes.
3.
A fund to be used in transacting business, especially a joint stock or capital. "Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money."
4.
(Gaming) The sum of money or the checks which the dealer or banker has as a fund, from which to draw his stakes and pay his losses.
5.
In certain games, as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw; in Monopoly, the fund of money used to pay bonuses due to the players, or to which they pay fines.
6.
A place where something is stored and held available for future use; specifically, An organization that stores biological products for medical needs; as, a blood bank, an organ bank, a sperm bank.
Bank credit, a credit by which a person who has given the required security to a bank has liberty to draw to a certain extent agreed upon.
Bank of deposit, a bank which receives money for safe keeping.
Bank of issue, a bank which issues its own notes payable to bearer.



verb
Bank  v. t.  (past & past part. banked; pres. part. banking)  
1.
To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. "Banked well with earth."
2.
To heap or pile up; as, to bank sand.
3.
To pass by the banks of. (Obs.)
4.
(Engineering) To build (a roadway or railroad) with an inclination at a curve in the road, so as to counteract centrifugal forces acting on vehicles moving rapiudly around the curve, thus reducing the danger of vehicles overturning at a curve; as, the raceway was steeply banked at the curves.
To bank a fire, To bank up a fire, to cover the coals or embers with ashes or cinders, thus keeping the fire low but alive.



Bank  v. t.  To deposit in a bank.



Bank  v. i.  
1.
To keep a bank; to carry on the business of a banker.
2.
To deposit money in a bank; to have an account with a banker.



Bank  v. i.  (Aeronautics) To tilt sidewise in rounding a curve; said of a flying machine, an aerocurve, or the like.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Bank" Quotes from Famous Books



... dangerous coast—until she shuddered in her light summer gown. Her shoulders contracted, her teeth chattered, and that feeling of discomfort was to her as a signal for action. She took another allee of rose-bushes in flower to reach a point on the bank barren of vegetation, where was outlined the form of a boat. She soon detached it, and, managing the heavy oars with her delicate hands, she advanced toward the ...
— Cosmopolis, Complete • Paul Bourget

... Protocol, 1885. Holland, on ground of the Treaty of 1824, objected to a British settlement in Borneo; also disputed the boundary between Dutch and British Borneo. The writer 'violates' Netherland territory and hoists the Company's flag on the south bank of the Siboku, 1883. Annual tribute paid to the Brunai Government. Certain intervening independent rivers still to be acquired. Dent's first settlements at Sandakan, Tampassuk, and Pappar. Messrs. ...
— British Borneo - Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo • W. H. Treacher

... slightly with his knife, but Ratoneau, hugging him like a bear, made it difficult to strike, and the fight became a tremendous wrestling match, in which the two men struggled and panted and slipped and lurched from side to side, from the grassy bank to the willows by the water, each vainly trying to ...
— Angelot - A Story of the First Empire • Eleanor Price

... through which Fanny drew hers without hesitation. They stepped from the piazza, and passed in among the fragrant shrubbery, following one of the garden walks, until they were in view of the scene to which Mr. Willet referred. A heavy bank of clouds had fallen in the east, and the moon was just struggling through the upper, broken edges, along which her gleaming silver lay in fringes, broad belts, and fleecy masses, giving to the ...
— The Good Time Coming • T. S. Arthur

... direction to that which the road pursued; he was minded to see a little more of the big house perched so boldly on that bluff above the stream, looking down so scornfully at the humble village on the other bank. ...
— Captain Dieppe • Anthony Hope


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