Word.ws English Dictionary

loansharking

loansharking is the present participle and gerund of loanshark.

Meaning of loanshark

Verb

loanshark (third-person singular simple present loansharks, present participle loansharking, simple past and past participle loansharked)

  1. To commit usury (to loan money at an excessive rate of interest), especially if collecting under threat of violence.

Noun

loansharking (uncountable)

  1. The lending of money at an excessive interest rate.
    • During an 18-month investigation involving a talk force of city, state and Federal authorities, the indicted people were also allgedly involved in counterfeiting and loansharking.1979 February 10, “Taking Over Bars”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 2

Forms of loansharking

alternative formloan sharking

Questions about loansharking

What does loansharking mean?
Loansharking means the lending of money at an excessive interest rate.
What is loansharking the present participle and gerund of?
Loansharking is the present participle and gerund of loanshark.
What part of speech is loansharking?
Loansharking is a noun.

Words near loansharking in the dictionary

  1. loanmonger
  2. loanmongers
  3. loans
  4. loanshark
  5. loansharked
  6. loansharking
  7. loansharks
  8. loanshift
  9. loanshifted
  10. loanshifting
  11. loanshifts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loansharking (page history and authors); loanshark (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “loansharking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loansharking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.