shanks

Noun

shank (plural shanks)

1. The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
   • Edward I of England was nicknamed Edward Longshanks.
2. Meat from that part of an animal.
3. (colloquial) A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.
4. A straight, narrow part of an object, such as a key or an anchor; shaft; stem.
   • The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC
5. The handle of a pair of shears, connecting the ride to the neck.
6. The center part of a fishhook between the eye and the hook, the 'hook' being the curved part that bends toward the point.

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