as in knife
an instrument with a metal length that has a sharp edge for cutting
slashed at the prison guard with a shank he had secretly made from a scrap of metal
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Recent Examples of shank
The joint motors enable 12 degrees of freedom, translating to a motion range from -58° to plus 58° at the body, -134 to 180°/-89 to 225° at the thighs, and -158 to -30° at the shank.
—
New Atlas, 6 Aug. 2025
Going 8-over through three holes means multiple double bogeys or worse, and five shanks, where the ball rockets off the hosel, are enough to rattle any player's confidence.
—Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
Metal detectors had been tuned to be more sensitive, and the metal shank inside the soles of many shoes, installed to provide support, often set them off.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 10 July 2025
Each probe consists of four parallel shanks, and each shank is studded with 1,280 electrodes.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2022
See All Example Sentences for shank
New Atlas, 6 Aug. 2025
Going 8-over through three holes means multiple double bogeys or worse, and five shanks, where the ball rockets off the hosel, are enough to rattle any player's confidence.
—Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
Metal detectors had been tuned to be more sensitive, and the metal shank inside the soles of many shoes, installed to provide support, often set them off.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 10 July 2025
Each probe consists of four parallel shanks, and each shank is studded with 1,280 electrodes.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2022
See All Example Sentences for shank
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shank
Noun
-
Just four minutes later, Decarlos Brown, the passenger behind her, dug into the fold of his clothes and took out what appeared to be a knife.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
9 Sep. 2025
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Zarutska began scrolling on her phone and after a few minutes the man pulled out a knife and stabbed her.—
Danielle Wallace , Rachel Wolf,
FOXNews.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The Healy has been patrolling the Arctic alongside the national security cutter USCGC Waesche since Saturday.—
Ryan Chan,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Sep. 2025
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These include American Tanto, sheepfoot, serrated and saw blade options, as well as unconventional choices like a comb and can opener/ruler/wrench/seatbelt cutter single-piece multitool.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shank.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shank. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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