*bank*

n. [ OE. banke; akin to E. bench, and prob. of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. bakki. See Bench. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

They cast up a bank against the city. 2 Sam. xx. 15. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A steep acclivity, as the slope of a hill, or the side of a ravine. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Tiber trembled underneath her banks. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shoal, shelf, or shallow; as, the banks of Newfoundland. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Aëronautics) The lateral inclination of an aëroplane as it rounds a curve; as, a bank of 45° is easy; a bank of 90° is dangerous. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

7. A group or series of objects arranged near together; as, a bank of electric lamps, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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. [ PJC ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Banked(bă&nsmacr_;kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Banking. ] 1. To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. “Banked well with earth.” Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To heap or pile up; as, to bank sand. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To pass by the banks of. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ PJC ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prob. fr. F. banc. Of German origin, and akin to E. bench. See Bench. ] 1. A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars. [ 1913 Webster ]

Placed on their banks, the lusty Trojan sweep
Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Printing) A sort of table used by printers. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Music) A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. banque, It. banca, orig. bench, table, counter, of German origin, and akin to E. bench; cf. G. bank bench, OHG. banch. See Bench, and cf. Banco, Beach. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The building or office used for banking purposes. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A fund to be used in transacting business, especially a joint stock or capital. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

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. [ PJC ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To deposit in a bank. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To keep a bank; to carry on the business of a banker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deposit money in a bank; to have an account with a banker. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. (Aëronautics) To tilt sidewise in rounding a curve; -- said of a flying machine, an aërocurve, or the like. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Receivable at a bank. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. In America (and formerly in England), a promissory note of a bank payable to the bearer on demand, and used as currency; a bank note. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In England, a note, or a bill of exchange, of a bank, payable to order, and usually at some future specified time. Such bills are negotiable, but form, in the strict sense of the term, no part of the currency. [ 1913 Webster ]

A book kept by a depositor, in which an officer of a bank enters the debits and credits of the depositor's account with the bank. [ 1913 Webster ]

. A sum equal to the interest at a given rate on the principal (face) of a bill or note from the time of discounting until it becomes due. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n.[ See the nouns Bank and the verbs derived from them. ] 1. One who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for traffic in money, bills of exchange, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A money changer. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The dealer, or one who keeps the bank in a gambling house. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A vessel employed in the cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland. Crabb. J. Q. Adams. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A ditcher; a drain digger. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The stone bench on which masons cut or square their work. Weale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female banker. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus consisting of giant shipworms.
Syn. -- genus Bankia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The business of a bank or of a banker. [ 1913 Webster ]

Banking house, an establishment or office in which, or a firm by whom, banking is done. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A promissory note issued by a bank or banking company, payable to the bearer on demand. See also sense 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the United States popularly called a bank bill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Formerly, a promissory note made by a banker, or banking company, payable to a specified person at a fixed date; a bank bill. See Bank bill, 2. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A promissory note payable at a bank. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A promissory note issued by an authorized bank, payable to the bearer on demand and intended to circulate as government-authorized money; in the United States such notes may only be issued by a Federal Reserve Bank; as, he peeled off five one-thousand-zloty banknotes.
Syn. -- bill, note, government note, bank bill, banker's bill, bank note, Federal Reserve note, greenback. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

v. t. Depend on; be confident of. [ PJC ]

n. 1. the money carried on one's person. ”He shot his bankroll on a bob-tailed nag.”
Syn. -- roll, wad. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

2. one's total supply of money; funds. [ PJC ]

v. t. To pay the costs of; as, Who will bankroll the restoration of the former East German economy?. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bankrupted; p. pr. & vb. n. Bankrupting. ] To make bankrupt; to bring financial ruin upon; to impoverish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. banqueroute, fr. It. bancarotta bankruptcy; banca bank (fr. OHG. banch, G. bank, bench) + rotta broken, fr. L. ruptus, p. p. of rumpere to break. At Florence, it is said, the bankrupt had his bench (i.e., money table) broken. See 1st Bank, and Rupture, n. ] 1. (Old Eng. Law) A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A trader who becomes unable to pay his debts; an insolvent trader; popularly, any person who is unable to pay his debts; an insolvent person. M‘Culloch. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) A person who, in accordance with the terms of a law relating to bankruptcy, has been judicially declared to be unable to meet his liabilities. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In England, until the year 1861 none but a “trader” could be made a bankrupt; a non-trader failing to meet his liabilities being an “insolvent”. But this distinction was abolished by the Bankruptcy Act of 1861. The laws of 1841 and 1867 of the United States relating to bankruptcy applied this designation bankrupt to others besides those engaged in trade. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Being a bankrupt or in a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay, or legally discharged from paying, one's debts; as, a bankrupt merchant. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Depleted of money; not having the means of meeting pecuniary liabilities; as, a bankrupt treasury. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Relating to bankrupts and bankruptcy. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Destitute of, or wholly wanting (something once possessed, or something one should possess). “Bankrupt in gratitude.” Sheridan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bankrupt law, a law by which the property of a person who is unable or unwilling to pay his debts may be taken and distributed to his creditors, and by which a person who has made a full surrender of his property, and is free from fraud, may be discharged from the legal obligation of his debts. See Insolvent, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Bankruptcies 1. The state of being actually or legally bankrupt. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act or process of becoming a bankrupt. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Complete loss; -- followed by of. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The slope of a bank, especially of the bank of a stream. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Naut.) Having sides inclining inwards, as a ship; -- opposed to wall-sided. [ 1913 Webster ]

See under 1st Bank, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Banking) A national bank not in a reserve city. [ Colloq., U. S. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. (Naut.) To row by rowers sitting side by side in twos on a bank or thwart. [ 1913 Webster ]

To double-bank an oar, to set two men to pulling one oar. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Applied to a kind of rowing in which the rowers sit side by side in twos, a pair of oars being worked from each bank or thwart.

n. A bank or mound of earth. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Embanked p. pr. & vb. n. Embanking. ] [ Pref. em- + bank. Cf. Imbank. ] To throw up a bank so as to confine or to defend; to protect by a bank of earth or stone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of surrounding or defending with a bank. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A structure of earth, gravel, etc., raised to prevent water from overflowing a level tract of country, to retain water in a reservoir, or to carry a roadway, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Imbanked p. pr. & vb. n. Imbanking. ] [ Pref. im- in + bank. Cf. Embank. ] To inclose or defend with a bank or banks. See Embank. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of surrounding with a bank; a bank or mound raised for defense, a roadway, etc.; an embankment. See Embankment. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Zool.) The menhaden. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Zool.) The menhaded. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank. ] 1. One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack doctor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank . . . is preferred before an able physician. Whitlock. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To cheat by boasting and false pretenses; to gull. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To play the mountebank. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The practices of a mountebank; quackery; boastful and vain pretenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a mountebank or his quackery. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The practices of a mountebank; mountebankery. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a state-chartered savings bank owned by its depositors and managed by a board of trustees. Abbreviated MSB. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A form of cooperative bank, such as those of Germany; -- a term loosely used for various forms of cooperative financial institutions. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

1. The seashore. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A bank or mole to defend against the sea. [ 1913 Webster ]