lank

adj

1. Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.

   “Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o’erteemed loins, A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;”

   “1700, Isaac Barrow, Sermon XXII “Of Industry in our particular Calling, as Scholars,” in The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, D.D., London: John Tillotson, 2nd edition, Volume III, p. 226, […] who would not chuse […] to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain […] ?”

   “1724-5, Jonathan Swift, “A Receipt. To Restore Stella’s Youth” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Henry Washbourne, 1841, Volume 1, p. 687, Meagre and lank with fasting grown, And nothing left but skin and bone;”

   “The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.”

   “[…] while I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine, lank fingers came feeling over my face, and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour.”

2. (obsolete)Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity.

   “The Captain was inclined to be bald, but he brought a quantity of lank iron-grey hair over his pate, and had a couple of whisps of the same falling down on each side of his face.”

3. Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.)

   “1695, John Stevens (translator), The Portugues Asia; or, The History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portugues, by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, London: C. Brome, Chapter 10, p. 291, The Inhabitants most simple, and treated them with great affection. Of Colour more inclined to white, of Body strong and comly, lank Hair, and long Beards, their Cloaths of very fine Mats […]”

   “Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizled, and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the fore-parts of their legs and feet […]”

   “She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features—so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind.”

   “There were coffee houses where the first medical men might be consulted. […] There were Puritan coffee houses where no oath was heard, and where lank-haired men discussed election and reprobation through their noses.”

   “He was an exceedingly thin old man. Down from his head to his shoulders hung long, yellow, lank locks and within this enclosure was an old bony face, the forehead seamed with a thousand wrinkles.”

4. (obsolete)Languid; drooping, slack.

   “The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus’ hall; Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe […]”

   “Let us weigh the promises of the one and of the other in the balance of truth, and we shall finde that the promises of God are gold, and the promises of the devil are Alchimy, such which though they glitter much, have no worth or excellency in them. […] God’s, are substantial realities, and his, vanishing and fleeting shadows windy and swollen bladders, which but a little prickt, do quickly fall and grow lank.”

verb

1. (intransitive, rare)To become lank.

   “[…] on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look on: and all this— It wounds thine honour that I speak it now— Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek So much as lank’d not.”

noun

1. A clump of lank hair.

   “Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and, his auburn hair coming down in glossy lanks over his right temple, his striped tie dangling out of the front of his gray jacket, his bulky gray-flanneled knees parted, zestfully opened the book.”

name

1. A surname.