▪ I. shanker
(ˈʃæŋkə(r))
[f. shank n. and v. + -er1.]
† 1. nonce-use. A shank-bone. Obs.
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 148 It was my hap to meet with the shanke-bone [orig. Sp. cañilla] of a Heyfer..and presently..I had lapt vp my Shanker [orig. Sp. cancarron] in the Paste that remained. |
2. Sc. One who ‘shanks’ or knits stockings.
| 1636 List Inhab. Aberdeen in Scot. N. & Q. July (1893) 21 Elspet Torrie. Shanker. 1802 Sibbald Chron. S.P. IV. Gloss., Schankers, the women who knit them [stockings]. |
3. One who makes, forms or finishes the shanks of nails, buttons, etc.
| 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 76 Button maker... Shanker. Ibid. 91 Nail manufacture... Wrought nail: Maker. Shanker... Header. Pointer. |
4. Sc. One who sinks shafts.
| 1882 Jamieson's Sc. Dict., Shanker,..a sinker of shafts; as, ‘a well-shanker, a pit-shanker,’ West of S[cotland]. 1887 P. McNeill Blawearie 46 Some shankers, who had been engaged sinking the sump at the bottom of the shaft a little deeper. |
▪ II. shanker
obs. form of chancre.