anker
Americannoun
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ankers
plural
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a unit of volume formerly used for wine and distilled liquor in some European countries and equal to about 10 gallons, with the exact amount depending on context. The anker was also used in some places settled by the Dutch, such as South Africa and parts of New York.
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a keg holding about 10 gallons.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Den 26en Jan. wierp de vloot voor Malayo het anker uit.
Thus we departed, and would haue put to sea that night: but there was much wind at East, which kept vs within the bay, and inforced vs to come to an anker vnder Isle Blanch.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Richard Hakluyt
On Thursday the seuenteenth wee saw Cueruo and Flores, but we could not come to anker that night, by reason the winde shifted.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Richard Hakluyt
But the weather continued so exceeding foule, that we could not come to an anker nye the coast: wherefore we stood off againe to Sea vntill Monday the 9 of August.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Richard Hakluyt
The 22 we came to an anker at an Island called Santa Cruz,101 where all the planters were set on land, staying there till the 25 of the same moneth.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Richard Hakluyt
But I’ll tell you what—if the boat is lying off the ship’s side, with a lot of ankers in her, why shouldn’t we creep in among them, and go ashore unbeknown to the first lieutenant?”
From Hair-Breadth Escapes The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa by H.C. Adams
The ankers brak, and the top-masts lap,It was sic a deadly storm;And the waves cam o’er the broken ship,Till a’ her sides were torn.
From A Collection of Ballads by Andrew Lang
This foresaid Keril said vnto me that one of the ankers which I borrowed was his.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Alexander Leslie
Each man takes two ankers, and then they scatter, and dash off inland to some meeting-place already agreed upon.
From Highway Pirates or, The Secret Place at Coverthorne by Harold Avery
Three gross, with six ankers of the colouring stuff gratis—and the tubs ready slung.
From The Mayor of Troy by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
