LANK

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lank mean? 

• LANK (adjective)
  The adjective LANK has 2 senses:

1. long and thin and often limp

2. long and lean

  Familiarity information: LANK used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LANK (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Long and thin and often limp

Context example:

lank mousy hair

Similar:

long (primarily spatial sense; of relatively great or greater than average spatial extension or extension as specified)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Long and lean

Synonyms:

lank; spindly

Similar:

lean; thin (lacking excess flesh)

 Context examples 

His visage was meagre, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We had scarcely done so, when Uriah Heep put in his red head and his lank hand at the door, and said: Here's Mr. Maldon begs the favour of a word, sir.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They were small men, wiry, active, and well-built, with lank black hair tied up in a bunch behind their heads with a leathern thong, and leathern also were their loin-clothes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Harkey, a long, lank Texan, was unusually friendly for one with a saturnine disposition, and, as long as his theory that gold grew was not challenged, was quite companionable.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

His head was sunk upon his breast, and he looked from my point of view like a strange, lank bird, with dull grey plumage and a black top-knot.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The tomb in the day-time, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The second man was a long, dried-up creature, with lank hair and sallow cheeks.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I saw Uriah's lank hand stop, involuntarily, in the scraping of his chin.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)