bank.
An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
Meaning & usage
An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
A branch office of such an institution.
An underwriter or controller of a card game.
A fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital.
The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses.
Money; profit.
In certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw.
A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods.
blood bank; data bank; sperm bank
A device used to store coins or currency.
If you want to buy a bicycle, you need to put the money in your piggy bank.
A collection of instrument data on a digital synthesizer.
All of the drum kits are on bank 1.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bankiz Proto-West Germanic *banki Lombardic bankbor. Italian bancabor. Middle French banqueder. English bank Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).
To deal with a bank or financial institution, or for an institution to provide financial services to a client.
He banked with Barclays.
To put into a bank (financial institution).
I’m going to bank the money.
To store in a bank (storage).
To conceal in the rectum for use in prison.
Johnny banked some coke for me.
To provide banking services to.
They proposed an ambitious plan to bank people in remote rural communities.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bankiz Proto-West Germanic *banki Lombardic bankbor. Italian bancabor. Middle French banqueder. English bank Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).
An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
An elevation under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth
the banks of Newfoundland
A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
An incline, a hill.
A mass of clouds.
The bank of clouds on the horizon announced the arrival of the predicted storm front.
The face of the coal at which miners are working.
A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
The ground at the top of a shaft.
Ores are brought to bank.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old English *banca (“bench”) (attested in Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-West Germanic *bankō, from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).
To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
To cause (an aircraft) to bank.
To form into a bank or heap, to bank up.
to bank sand
To form a bank; to gather in masses.
To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat.
To raise a mound or dike about; to enclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank.
To pass by the banks of.
To provide additional power for a train ascending a bank (incline) by attaching another locomotive.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old English *banca (“bench”) (attested in Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-West Germanic *bankō, from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).
A row or panel of items stored or grouped together.
a bank of switches
a bank of pay phones
A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard.
A contiguous block of memory that is of fixed, hardware-dependent size, but often larger than a page and partitioning the memory such that two distinct banks do not overlap.
A set of multiple adjacent drop targets.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old French banc (“bench”), from Frankish *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old English benċ (“bench”).
To arrange or order in a row.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old French banc (“bench”), from Frankish *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old English benċ (“bench”).
A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars.
A bench or seat for judges in court.
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
A kind of table used by printers.
A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.
Where this word comes from
Probably from French banc. Of Germanic origin, and akin to English bench.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.