▪ I. hank, n.
(hæŋk)
Also 6 hanc, 6–7 hanke, 7–9 hanck(e.
[Found in 14th c.; app. from Norse: cf. ON. hǫnk fem. (:—*hanku), genit. hankar hank, coil, skein, clasp; also hanki m., the hasp or clasp of a chest; Sw. hank m., string, tie-band, rowel; Da. hank handle (as of a basket), ear of a pot. (The connexion of senses 6 and 7 with the others is not certain.)]
1. A circular coil or loop of anything flexible.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 173/2 An Hank. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. v. [iv.] 34 As he [Laocoon] etlis thair hankis to have rent, And with his handis thame away have draw. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iv. (1677) 40 Tie them fast with the two ends of the Silk, that they may hang in so many Hanks. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. iii. 107 An Hank is a slipping made up into a knot. 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 196 The hair..is usually twisted into many little ringlets or hanks. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. ii. 119 The stems..were coiled in great hanks round the trawl-beam. |
2. A skein or coil of thread, yarn, etc.; a definite length of yarn or thread in a coil.
A hank of cotton yarn contains 840 yds.; of worsted yarn 560 yds. to make a ravelled hank, to entangle a skein hence fig. ‘to put anything into confusion’ (Brockett).
| 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 694 Ane Reill..To reill thair hankis..of reid gold wyir. 1633 Naworth Househ. Bks. (Surtees) 328 For sixe hanckes and 3 cutts of yarne. 1776–7 Act 17 Geo. III, c. 11 §11 Every several hank of such worsted yarn shall..contain seven raps or leas. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 41 Knotting my hanks of gut. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 102 In cotton yarns, the rule of numbering is very simple, being the number of hanks, each eight hundred and forty yards long, requisite to form one pound in weight. Thus No. 40, written 40's., denotes yarns of which forty hanks weigh one pound. 1880 Harper's Mag. Sept. 534/2 The ceilings [were] hung with hanks of blue yarn. 1888 Century Mag. XXXVI. 768/2 These little silken ‘hanks’ were sometimes..prettily colored. 1957 Vogue Knitting Bk. L. 70/2 (Advt.), 3, 4 & 2-ply Super Botany Wool. oz. hanks 1/5. 1966 Which? Feb. 53/2 Most yarns are sold in balls nowadays; we tested only nine still sold in the hank. |
| fig. a 1745 Swift To Dr. Sheridan 31 Thy words together ty'd in small hanks, Close as the Macedonian phalanx. 1896 Home Missionary (N.Y.) July 136 The tangled hank has yet many knots and hitches. |
3. a. A loop of string, wire, or the like, used to fasten things together, or to hang a thing up by; spec. in rural use, A bight of rope or a withy used as the fastening of a gate or hurdle.
| 1388–9 Abingdon Acc. (Camden) 57, j hank pro cemetar'. 1617 Markham Caval. vi. 9 If his Rider start him sodainly, or hold his hankes too straite. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 16 Yow are to make your hankes 3 quarters of a yarde in length, and to putte to everie barre yow sende to fielde a hanke. 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. Gloss., Hank, a with, or rope, for fastening a gate. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Hank, a rope-loop for fastening a gate. |
b. Naut. A hoop or ring of rope, wood, or iron, fixed upon the stays, to seize the luff of the fore-and-aft sails, and to confine the staysails thereto, at different distances (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.).
| 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuilder's Assist. 134 Fore-sheet, Main-sheet, Hanks, Swifter. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Anneaux d'étai, the hanks of a stay-sail. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 88 Reef-hanks, short pieces of log-line, or other small line, sewed at certain distances on the reefs of boom-sails. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxxv. 132 A rattling of hanks announce that the flying-jib has come in. 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 450/1 Then comes a foresail, which is fitted with hanks to the fore-stay. |
c. hank for hank: see quots.
| 1760 C. Johnston Chrysal (1822) II. 238 Able to go, hank for hank with any thing that swims the sea. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship II. 251* Hank-for-hank, when two ships tack and make a progress to windward together. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Hank for hank. |
4. fig. a. A restraining or curbing hold; a power of check or restraint: esp. in to have a hank on or over any one. Now rare or dial.
| 1613 T. Potts Disc. Witches (Chetham) P iv a, The said witches..had then in hanck a child of Michael Hartleys. 1706 Farquhar Recruit. Officer ii. ii, 'Twill give me such a hank upon her pride. 1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. II. xxi. 172 So that their landlords might have them [the tenants] upon the hank. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 251 Humphry had this double hank upon her inclinations. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss. s.v., To keep a good hank upon your horse, is to have a good hold of the reins. 1851 De Quincey Ld. Carlisle on Pope Wks. 1862 XII. 45 He had defied all the powers of Chancery to get a hank over him. |
b. Connexion, entanglement; no hanks with, no relations with, nothing to do with. dial.
| 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Hanks, connection or dealings with—used only with a negative construction..I have heard people warned..‘not to have no hanks’ with a certain horse, or with an undesirable bargain. 1893 Wiltsh. Gloss. s.v., ‘I won't ha' no hank wi' un’, will have nothing at all to do with him. |
c. Wrestling. In the Cumberland and Westmorland style, a throw made by putting the left leg between the legs of an opponent, catching his left leg, and leaning or pulling backwards. Also back-hank.
| 1870 W. Armstrong Wrestliana 44 Robinson lifted him up like a cat lifting a mouse, when, Plaskett immediately put in the hank. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 690/2 Each man tries to throw his adversary by using the ‘buttock’,..the ‘crossbuttock’,..or the ‘back-hank’. 1898 Encycl. Sport II. 547/2 The hank, when manipulated by an expert wrestler, becomes one of the hardest and most dangerous falls of all. |
5. The handle of a jug or pot. dial.
| c 1530 in Gutch Coll. Cur. II. 318 The mending of twoo Pottile Pottis..the gilding and mending the hancs lyddes and saudering them in sartaigne places. 1847–78 Halliwell, Hank, a handle. Somerset. |
6. A baiting of an animal.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., A Smithfield hank, an ox rendered furious by over driving and barbarous treatment. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Hank, a bull-bait, or bullock-hunt. 1813 Sporting Mag. XLII. 24 To appear at a mill, a hanck, or a dog-fight. 1881 Diprose's Annual 64/2 The needful preparations for these Tiger Hanks. Ibid. 66/2 Thus ended my first, though..not my last tiger hank. |
7. A propensity; an evil habit. dial.
| 1721 Bailey, Hank, a Habit, Custom or Propensity of Mind. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Hank, a habit. 1828 Craven Dial. s.v., ‘Shoe's gitten a sad hank o' runnin out ot neets.’ 1878 Cumbld. Gloss., Hank, an evil habit. |
▪ II. hank, v.
(hæŋk)
Also 4 hanc, haunk, 4–7 hanke, 7 hanck.
[Known from 13th c.; prob. from Norse: cf. ON. hanka to coil, refl. hankask to coil oneself up, f. hǫnk, hank- n.: see prec. (The connexion of senses 5 and 6 is uncertain.)]
1. a. trans. To fasten by a loop or noose; to entangle; to catch by any loop-like part. Now dial.
| [c 1205 Lay. 25872 Beoð þine feðer-heomen Ihannked mid golde.] a 1300 Cursor M. 16044 Ful herd þai did [him] hanc, And bonden broght him forth as thef. c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 50 The Lyon fled and..Fell in the net and hankit fute and head. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. iii. 10 At the schoyr wndir a gresy bank, Thair nauy can thai ankir fast and hank. 1617 Markham Caval. vi. 44 He shall hold [the reynes] fast betweene his fore-finger and his thumbe, and then hanke them about his hand twice. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma liii. 242 Others hank their horses on to the crook at the door. 1894 Crockett Lilac Sunbonnet 39 There he hung, hanket by the waistband o' his breeks. |
| fig. 1357 Lay Folks Catech. 456 Dedli synnes..gastely sla ilk mannes saule, That er hanked [Lamb. MS. bound] in al or in any of tham. 1744 E. Erskine Serm. Wks. (1871) III. 201 The heart of the bride being thus hanked or catched with the glory of the Bridegroom. |
b. Wrestling. To throw (an opponent) by means of the hank (see hank n. 4 c).
| 1881 Sportsman's Year-Bk. 314 The next fall resulted in favour of Pooley, who hanked his adversary. 1894 Carlisle Patriot 13 July 7/4 (Cumbld. Gloss. 1899), J— was hanked, S— trying the inside click. |
† 2. To hang. Obs. (Perh. a scribal error.)
| c 1465 Eng. Chron. (Camden 1856) 10 The kyng pardoneth the thy drawyng and hankyng, but thyn hed shalle be smyte of. |
3. intr. To hang or remain fastened; to ‘catch.’
(In quot. 1547 prob. a misprint.)
| 1547 Hooper Declar. Christ viii. (Zurich) Hij, The same bodye that hankyd upon the crose. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady v. iv, You should have hankt o' th' bridle, Sir, i' faith. Mod. Sc. Take care that your line does not hank on the bushes. |
4. trans. To make up (thread) in hanks.
| 1818 Todd, Hank, to form into hanks. Used in the north of England. 1825 in Brockett N.C. Gloss. |
5. To bait: cf. hanker n.1 slang.
| 1823 [see hanker n.1] 1893 in Farmer Slang. |
† 6. intr. = hanker v. 1, 2. Obs.
| 1589 C. Ocland in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 71 Where I hanked after plentie I have runne upon scarcetie. 1716 Cuckoo in Jacobite Songs (1871) 23 He'll fley away the wild birds that hank about the throne. |
Hence hanking vbl. n.
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 16 The 8th thinge belonge to barres is fold-hankes or hankinges, as they call them, which is as thicke againe as plough-string, beinge a loose kinde of two plettes. 1820 J. Cleland Rise & Progr. Glasgow 45 The hanking of handspun yarn. |