Word.ws English Dictionary

hank

/ˈhæŋk/US/ˈheɪ̯ŋk/

hank noun: a coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope.

hank: a coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope
Image: WillowW, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hank (plural hanks)

  1. A coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope.
    • […] the best thing of all to stop bleeding at the Nose, is to take a Hank of Coventry-blew thread, and hang it cross a stick, and set one end of it on fire […] and let him receive the smoak up his Nostrils […]1681, E.R., The Experienced Farrier, London, p. 307
    • Cotton twist is spun here of 130 hanks to the pound. Each hank is 840 yards long […]1796, Thomas Pennant, “History of Holywell Parish,”, in The History of the Parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell, London: B. and J. White, page 217
  2. A ring or shackle that secures a staysail to its stay and allows the sail to glide smoothly up and down.
  3. (Ulster) Doubt, difficulty.
  4. (Ulster) Mess, tangle.
  5. A rope or withe for fastening a gate.
  6. (obsolete) Hold; influence.
    • Seldom doth a man fall into a Preſumptuous Sin, but vvhere the Devil hath got ſuch a hanke over him, […]1636 July (date delivered), Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Aulam.] Sermon IV. Beuvoyr, July 1636”, in XXXIV Sermons. […], 5th edition, London: […] [A. Clark] for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge...
  7. A throw in which a wrestler turns his left side to his opponent, twines his left leg about his opponent's right leg from the inside, and throws him backward.

Verb

hank (third-person singular simple present hanks, present participle hanking, simple past and past participle hanked)

  1. (transitive) To form into hanks.
  2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To fasten with a rope, as a gate.
    • where stood a fyne howse newly built and vaulted, over wheron her armes was sett and hanked with tapestrye1573, Richard Dering, “Accounts Book”, in The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, John Nichols, published 1823

Proper noun capitalized: Hank

Hank (plural Hanks)

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Henry.
  2. (archaic) A diminutive of the male given name Hankin (a medieval form of John).

hank meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hank in Hindi

हांक, हैंक

hank in Tamil

சிட்டம், நூல்கழி, நூல்சுருள், கண்ணி, குஞ்சம்

hank in Marathi

हांक

hank in Urdu

ہینک, ہانک, ہنک
More languagesFewer languages
hank in Bengali
হ্যাঙ্ক, হাঙ্ক
hank in Telugu
హాంక్
hank in Malayalam
നൂൽക്കഴി, കയർവളയം, കൈനൂൽ, ചരട്
hank in Kannada
ಹ್ಯಾಂಕ್, ಹಾಂಕ್
hank in Punjabi
ਹੰਕ
hank in Gujarati
હેંક, હેન્ક, હન્ક
hank in Odia
ହ୍ଯ଼ାଙ୍କ, ହ୍ଯ଼ାଙ୍କ୍, ହାଙ୍କ
hank in Nepali
हङ्क, ह्याङ्क

Examples of hank in a sentence

  • […] her hair was as straight as a hank of cotton.1859, George Eliot, chapter 9, in Adam Bede, volume 1, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, page 181:
  • The past year or two had brought knitting-needles into countenance for men, and he saw no reason why he should not put a few hanks of yarn into shape useful for himself.1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 14, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 131:
  • He found a hank of clothesline on a counter.1957, Nevil Shute, chapter 9, in On the Beach, New York: William Morrow:

All 15 example sentences with hank

Forms of hank

Noun
pluralhanks
Verb
third-person singular presenthanks
present participlehanking
past participlehanked
pasthanked
Proper noun
pluralHanks

Plural of hank: hanks

Origin of hank

From Middle English hank, of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse hǫnk (compare haki (“something bent”)), related to Proto-Germanic *hakô (“hook”). Akin to Old English hangian (“to hang”). First known use: 14th century.

Phrases with hank

Words that rhyme with hank

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hank

What does hank mean?
Hank means a coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope.
What is hank in Hindi?
Hank in Hindi is हांक, हैंक. See Hank meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hank in a sentence?
[…] her hair was as straight as a hank of cotton.
What part of speech is hank?
Hank can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hank?
Hank is pronounced /ˈhæŋk/.
What is the plural of hank?
The plural of hank is hanks.

Words near hank in the dictionary

  1. hanjian
  2. Hanjiang
  3. hanjians
  4. hanjie
  5. hanjies
  6. hank
  7. Hank Marvin
  8. Hanke
  9. Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar
  10. hanked
  11. Hankede

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hank (page history and authors); Hank (page history and authors); hank (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hank (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hank (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hank (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hank.wav.

Cite this entry: “hank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.