▪ I. anker
(ˈæŋkə(r))
Also 7 ankor, 8 anchor.
[a. Du. (and Ger.) anker, of uncert. origin; found also in med.L. as anceria, ancheria.]
1. A measure of wine and spirits, used in Holland, North Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. It varies in different countries; that of Rotterdam, formerly also used in England, contains 10 old wine gallons or 81/3 imperial gallons.
| 1673 Pennsylv. Arch. I. 32 Rec{supd} one halfe Ankor of Drinke. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) I. ii. 10 A few anchors of right Nantz. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vi. lxxxi. 371, 2 Stakans = 1 anchor; 6 Anchors = 1 hogshead [in Russia]. 1816 Gentl. Mag. LXXXVI. ii. 217 The infused water amounts to 2 or 3½ ankers in quantity. |
2. A cask or keg holding the above quantity.
| ? c 1750 Anc. Poems, Bal. etc. (1846) 180 We'll drink it out of the anker, my boys. 1848 in H. Miller Ramb. Geol. x. 384 Wedging them all fast together, like staves in an anker. 1863 W. Baldwin African Hunt. 290 The little there was..we transferred most carefully to the anker. |
† 3. As a dry measure of capacity. Obs.
| 1597 Middleton Wisd. Solom. Wks. V. 336, I fear me that the acres of my field pass the ankers of my seed. |
▪ II. anker, -as
obs. forms of anchor, -ess.