loan shark

See synonyms for loan shark on Thesaurus.com
nounInformal.
  1. a person who lends money at excessively high rates of interest; usurer.

Origin of loan shark

1
An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Words Nearby loan shark

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use loan shark in a sentence

  • Then, determined to get something out of the policy, he had gone to a loan-shark.

    The Best Policy | Elliott Flower
  • A loan-shark does not lose much time in matters of this sort.

    The Best Policy | Elliott Flower
  • Then the loan shark sends in a statement of the account, and, if the manufacturer complains, begins to show his teeth.

  • "Say, five hundred dollars," the loan shark generously offered.

    The Bad Man | Charles Hanson Towne
  • He had been called many things—loan-shark, skinflint, tightwad, pussyfoot—but he had never before been called a flirt.

    Main Street | Sinclair Lewis

British Dictionary definitions for loan shark

loan shark

noun
  1. informal a person who lends funds at illegal or exorbitant rates of interest

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012