Meanings
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1
verb
cover with planks
The streets were planked.
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2
verb
set something or oneself down with or as if with a noise
They planked the money on the table.
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3
noun
A political issue that is of concern to a faction or a party of the people and the political position that is taken on that issue.
Germanization was a central plank of German conservative thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries.
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4
noun
That which supports or upholds.
His charity is a better plank than the faith of an intolerant and bitter-minded bigot.
Thesaurus
Etymology
From Middle English plank, planke, borrowed from Old French planke, Old Northern French planque (compare French planche, from Old French planche), from Vulgar Latin planca, from palanca, from Latin phalanga. The Latin term derives from the Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx), so it is thus a doublet of phalange and phalanx. Compare also the doublets planch and planche, and plancha, borrowed later from Middle French, Modern French, and Spanish, respectively.