lank
Americanadjective
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(of plants) unduly long and slender.
lank grass; lank, leafless trees.
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(of hair) straight and limp; without spring or curl.
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lean; gaunt; thin.
adjective
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long and limp
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thin or gaunt
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lank
before 1000; Middle English lanc, Old English hlanc; akin to Old High German hlanca loin, side. Cf. flank
Explanation
Lank can describe grass that is long, hair that is limp, and people who are tall and thin. From the Old English hlanc (which is fun to say out loud), meaning loose and empty, lank is an adjective used to describe plant life which is long and slender, hair that hangs long and limp, and people who are long and slim. So you might hire a lank basketball player with lank hair to cut the grass when it’s lank. Or you might cut it yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing lank
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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Let's Go Caroling, List 1
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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:
But the choice to give Kate aggressively lank, greasy, unkempt hair makes her a lot less watchable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
Her hair is lank, unwashed, and she hides herself in oversized clothes.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2022
“He looks convincingly ancient, with lank white hair and stubbly beard, and he performs with the creaky, painful movements of a weary, stiff-jointed old man.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
As toxic algal blooms in the Klamath basin's main lank threaten the also-endangered suckerfish a month earlier than "normal," water is in short supply and dead juvenile chinook salmon are found every day.
From Fox News ● Jul. 14, 2021
Harry thought she looked terrible: thinner than usual, her mouse-colored hair lank.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
There’s one scene in which she backcombs it in a garage forecourt before reappearing, her hair lanker than ever.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 20, 2015
Of course I could not send them to school—they would only grow lanker.
From The Front Yard by Woolson, Constance Fenimore
The tutor's shadow, longer, lanker, and more grotesque than himself, mopped and mowed upon the wall beside him.
From The Brownies and Other Tales by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty
These birds are the size of a turkey-cock; but they are lanker and more angular in form.
From Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests by Ross, Thomasina
The old man rubbed his bristling jaw, that seemed even lanker than when Bartley saw it last.
From A Modern Instance by Howells, William Dean
Male Bonding are not the first non-US band to be on Sub Pop, but it still feels like a gesture, even an assertion of sorts, albeit a drawled one muffled by the lankest of fringes.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 28, 2010
He was the puniest, lankest, and leanest of any we had seen on the hacienda, and his single garment was the dirtiest.
From Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I. by Stephens, John L.
The second man of the trio was the lankest and leanest person in the whole forest, and was called Slim Schlurker.
From Tales of the Caravan, Inn, and Palace by Hauff, Wilhelm
West Virginia hogs are the longest, lankest, boniest animals in creation.
From The Citizen-Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer by Beatty, John
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.
