bank

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a building in which the business of banking transacted

   the bank is on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon

2. 2
   noun

   a container, usually with a slot in the top, for keeping money at home

   I used to have a bank shaped like a pig.

3. 3
   noun

   a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities

   They cashed a check at the bank.

4. 4
   noun

   an arrangement of similar objects in a row or in tiers

   They operated a bank of switches.

5. 5
   noun

   a long ridge or pile

   a huge bank of earth

6. 6
   noun

   sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water)

   they pulled the canoe up on the bank

7. 7
   noun

   the funds held by a gambling house or the dealer in some gambling games

   We tried to break the bank at Monte Carlo.

8. 8
   verb

   to have confidence or faith in

   I banked on their intentions.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bankiz Proto-West Germanic *banki Lombardic bankbor. Italian bancabor. Middle French banqueder. English bank Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́во…