loan shark
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of loan shark
An Americanism dating back to 1900–05
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.
Meanwhile, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, compared the terms of student loans "to something that a loan shark would offer".
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
By charging fees that would make a loan shark blush.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 15, 2025
Jillette’s latest novel, “Random,” is about a young man who inherits his father’s crushing debt to a loan shark and turns to dice — and other dangerous measures — to dig himself out.
From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2022
It also doesn’t help that Rahim has a slippery past relationship with the truth: He omitted the fact that his original debt was to a loan shark, not a bank.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2022
So she started loaning out money—a loan shark.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
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.
