Forms: (1 ? banca), 3–7 banke, (3 Orm. bannke), 4 bonc, bonkk(e, 4–5 bonke, (5 bunk(e,) 4–6 bonk, 6 banc, banck(e, 3– bank. [ME. banke, prob. a. Old Norse *banke, *banki = OIcelandic bakki ridge, eminence, bank of clouds, of a river, chasm, etc. (whence Da. bakke, Sw. backe, hillock, hill, rising ground, ascent, acclivity):—OTeut. *bankon-; cogn. with OTeut. *banki-z, see BANK2 and BENCH; the primary sense of bank- being probably ‘shelf,’ natural or artificial, of earth, rock, sand or wood. The OE. repr. of banki, bakki, would be *banca, *ǭonca: a compound hó(h)banca in sense of ‘heel-bench, couch’ actually occurs once in a vocabulary, but this may be, as the sense suggests, one of the class of weak compounds from strong sbs. (cf. ándaga from dæg); in any case the senses of ME. banke, as well as its first appearance in the northern dialect, point to its Scandinavian source.]
I. A raised shelf or ridge of ground, etc.
1. A portion of the surface of the ground raised or thrown up into a ridge or shelf; a lengthened mound with steeply sloping sides. Hence, One side or slope of such a ridge or mound. Now chiefly in hedge-bank.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9210. Whærse iss all unnsmeþe get Þurrh bannkess & þurrh græfess.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 521. But flustreden forth as bestes ouer bankes and hilles.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 170. Downe I ley me upone this banke.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 249. I know a banke where the wilde time blowes. Ibid., II. ii. 40. Finde you out a bed, For I vpon this banke will rest my head.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 6. Sitting ydle on a sunny banck.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 170. Toyed by each bank and trifled at each stile.
1862. Barnes, Rhymes Dorset Dial., I. 22. Yollow cowslip-banks.
† 2. A high ground, height, hill, fell. Obs. exc. in north. dial.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 906. Bydez here by þys blysful bonc.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 14. On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez.
c. 1420. Anturs Arth., iv. To beker at the barrens, in bonkes so bare.
b. Hence: The slope or acclivity of a hill, a hillside, a brae; a ‘hanger.’ Still common in the north; cf. up-bank = up-hill.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 8. To reste Vnder a brod banke bi a bourne syde.
a. 1400. Death & Life (Warton), x. And as she came by the bankes, the boughes … lowted to that ladye, and layd forth their branches.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 37. There vas ane grene banc ful of rammel grene treis.
1570. Levins, Manip., /24. Banke of an hill, procliuitas.
1631. Stow, Chron., 1088. Two hills their euen Bankes doe somewhat seeme to stretch.
1808. Anderson, Borrowdale Johnnie. It tuik me nine days and six hours comin up-bank.
1816. Miss Austen, Emma, III. vi. 309. A bank of considerable abruptness & grandeur.
1875. J. A. H. Murray, Thos. of Erceldoune, 2. Thomas, lying on Huntley Banks, sees the lady riding by.
1879. Shropsh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bonk, a sloping height.
† 3. An artificial earthwork, an embankment, esp. for military use. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Sam. xx. 15. Beseged him … and made a banke aboute the cite.
1552. Huloet, Banckes defensyue againste subundation called Seabanckes or Seadickes.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 59. Fenced on the East-side with the bank or rampier of Tarquinius.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xx. 15. They cast vp a banke against the city.
† 4. An ant-hill. Obs.
1667. E. King, in Phil. Trans., II. 425. If either of the other two sorts be put into the black Ants Bank.
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 76. We suppose a Bank of Hill Ants to amount … to six Thousand.
5. A shelving elevation in the sea or the bed of a river, rising to or near the surface, composed of sand, mud, gravel, etc. Also a bed of oysters, mussels, or the like.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vii. 7. But here, vpon this Banke and Schoole of time, Wee’ld iumpe the life to come.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3221/4. Near the Banks of Dunkirk. Ibid. (1702), No. 3842/4. Fish from the Bank of Newfoundland.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1858), 437. The Banks (so they call the place where they catch the fish).
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., v. ad fin. No danger of bank or breaker.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. ii. 86. Oysters … in vast numbers, forming what are termed Oyster banks.
6. A long flat-topped mass: e.g., of cloud or mist stretching above the horizon, of piled-up ice or snow, etc.
a. 1626[?]. Bacon, Charge, 4 (T.), in Lett., etc. (1736), 353. There may be perhaps a bank of clouds in the north or west.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxi. 113. On the starboard bow was a bank of mist.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., IV. 201. A long dim formless fog-bank creeping low.
1860. Fitz-Roy, in Merc. Mar. Mag., VII. 342. The first indications of daylight are seen above a bank of clouds.
7. Mining. a. ‘The face of the coal at which miners are working.’ b. ‘An ore-deposit or coal-bed worked by surface excavations or drifts above water-level.’ Raymond, Mining Gloss., 1881.
1862. Chamb. Jrnl., April, 216. The work is continued in one set until the bank is pierced through, and the next strait set is reached.
II. A bordering slope.
8. The shelving or sloping margin of a river or stream; the ground bordering upon a river.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 3495. That he no sank, Til he com to the water bank.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 241. Ouer þe water … fro bank to bank.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 23. Banke of watyr, Ripa.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. i. 50. Tyber trembled vnderneath her bankes.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. ix. 160. Some riuers ouerflow their bankes at some certaine times.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 82. This second bank [of the Jordan] is beset with Bushes and Trees.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 17. 120. The left bank of the glacier.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 5. Geographers have agreed to call that bank which lies upon your right side as you go down towards the sea the right bank.
b. fig.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs, in Arb., Garner, III. 257. Within the banks of his remembrance.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. xi. 33. Liberality should as well have banks as a stream.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., Addr. 13. Like a mighty deluge … beat down all the Banks of Laws, Vertue, and Sobriety.
† 9. The sea-coast or shore. Obs.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2717. Þe riche cite … vpon þe see bonke.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VII. 135. He sette ones … his chaier in þe banke of þe see.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VII. 2807. Brode sailes vp braid; bonkis þai leuyt.
a. 1470. Tiptoft, Cæsar, iii. (1530), 4. The open playne banke of Brytayne.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 437. Fra the West se bank.
1592. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 83. And twice by aukward winde from Englands banke Droue backe againe.
10. A raised or rising edge or margin of a pond, lake, pit, rond, railway cutting, or other hollow place; in Mining, the surface of the ground at the pit-mouth, or top of the shaft.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 182. The dikes were fulle wide with bankis hie without.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXXII. 12664. When þe prinse was past to þe pit bothum, Þe buernes on þe bonk bet hym with stonys.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 262. The fringed Bank [of a lake].
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 206. Daisies on the banks of the road.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Bank, the ground at the top of a shaft. Ores are brought ‘to bank,’ i.e. ‘to grass.’
† 11. spec. (from 8) The south side of the Thames opposite London [also called Bankside], and the brothel-quarter located there (suppressed in 1546).
1536. Remed. Sedition, 21. As moche shame for an honest man to come out of a tauerne … as it is here to come from the banke.
1548. Crowley, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. xvii. 142. Sisters of the Bank, the stumbling-blocks of all frail youth.
1598. Stow, Survey (1633), 448. On this Banke was sometime the Bordello or Stewes.
III. Comb., chiefly attrib., as Bank cress (Herb.), the Hedge-mustard (Sisymbrium officinale); bank-engine, the engine at a pit’s mouth; bank-fence, one consisting of a bank of earth; bank-fish, cod from Newfoundland-bank, whence bank-fishing, -fishery; bank-harbo(u)r, one protected by banks of mud, sand, etc.; bank-head, a pit’s mouth (see 10); bank-high a., swollen up to the banks; bank-hook, a large fishing-hook, baited, and attached by a line to the bank of a stream; bank-jug, the Willow Warbler, or Willow Wren; bank-manager, the superintendent at a pit’s mouth; bank-martin, -swallow, the Sand-martin; bank-smack, a Newfoundland fishing smack.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., 14. *Bank cress, from its growth in hedge banks.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 79/1. Three prizes, one with *Bankfish. Ibid. (1705), No. 4103/4. Newfoundland Bank-Fish … equal to the North-Sea Cod.
1882. Standard, 5 Sept., 4/6. The accumulations on the *‘bank head’ … are lower than is usual, and all the collieries are full of orders.
1882. Daily Tel., 28 Oct., 2/4. Streams everywhere are *bank high, and flooded.
1884. Yorksh. Post, 9 Jan. A bank manager in London or Liverpool was a very different personage from a *bank manager in Staffordshire or the mining regions generally, where he has to superintend the operations at the pit’s mouth.
1774. G. White, Selborne, lix. The *bank-martin terebrates a round and regular hole in the sand or earth.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 188. Be they either House-Swallows, or *Bank-Swallows.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 355. The fishery is carried on … in larger vessels, called *bank-smacks.
