anker
Americannoun
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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.
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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 Hakluyt, Richard
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 Hakluyt, Richard
The 29. wee weighed anker to bring the Tyger into the harbour, where through the vnskilfulnesse of the Master whose name was Fernando, the Admirall strooke on ground, and sunke.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Hakluyt, Richard
The 6. the Tyger fell with the Landes end, and the same day came to anker at Falmouth.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Hakluyt, Richard
The seuen and twentieth we came to anker at Cottea, where we found the Pinnesse riding at our comming.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. by Hakluyt, Richard
Then came great cheeses, casks of beef, flitches of bacon, kegs of butter, sacks of Pease and biscuit, ankers of brandy.
From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
They haue no kind of yron worke belonging to these vessels, saue only their ankers.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 10 Asia, Part III by Hakluyt, Richard
The ankers brak, and the tap-masts lap, It was sic a deadlie storm; And the waves cam' owre the broken ship, Till a' her sides were torn.
From English Songs and Ballads by Crosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
What difference can it make to the king, or to anybody else, if those men buy and sell a few ankers of brandy?
From Highway Pirates or, The Secret Place at Coverthorne by Avery, Harold
"Three gross of ankers, you say?" queried the Major.
From The Mayor of Troy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
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.
