as in knives
an instrument with a metal length that has a sharp edge for cutting
slashed at the prison guard with a shank he had secretly made from a scrap of metal
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of shanks
Lucrezia’s Regularly voted the region’s top Italian restaurant, Lucrezia’s serves housemade pasta, classic Italian appetizers, and braised lamb shanks and short ribs in a garden setting.
—
Iona Brannon, Travel + Leisure, 21 Nov. 2025
Boos rain down as Jeremy Crawshaw shanks that punt off the side of his foot.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 6 Nov. 2025
Homemade knives, called shanks, are plentiful inside the prison, several inmates said.
—Kristine Phillips, IndyStar, 5 Nov. 2025
Some of my favorite cuts for braising include pork shoulder, beef brisket, short ribs, chicken thighs, and lamb shanks.
—Carole Kotkin, Miami Herald, 7 Oct. 2025
Lamb shanks are braised in Malbec till they can be shredded and made into croquettes with provoleta cheese and a yogurt mint sauce.
—John Mariani, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
After a couple shanks, Sanchez launches one on line.
—Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 27 Aug. 2025
Frozen lamb shanks were improperly thawed in the prep sink without running water.
—Sacbee.com, 8 Aug. 2025
Each probe consists of four parallel shanks, and each shank is studded with 1,280 electrodes.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2022
Iona Brannon, Travel + Leisure, 21 Nov. 2025
Boos rain down as Jeremy Crawshaw shanks that punt off the side of his foot.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 6 Nov. 2025
Homemade knives, called shanks, are plentiful inside the prison, several inmates said.
—Kristine Phillips, IndyStar, 5 Nov. 2025
Some of my favorite cuts for braising include pork shoulder, beef brisket, short ribs, chicken thighs, and lamb shanks.
—Carole Kotkin, Miami Herald, 7 Oct. 2025
Lamb shanks are braised in Malbec till they can be shredded and made into croquettes with provoleta cheese and a yogurt mint sauce.
—John Mariani, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
After a couple shanks, Sanchez launches one on line.
—Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 27 Aug. 2025
Frozen lamb shanks were improperly thawed in the prep sink without running water.
—Sacbee.com, 8 Aug. 2025
Each probe consists of four parallel shanks, and each shank is studded with 1,280 electrodes.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 May 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shanks
Noun
-
Meantime, outflows both from both software and crypto (an asset class most correlated with unprofitable tech stocks) grew excessive until the savage software/bitcoin selloff hit an extreme Thursday, when money came sloshing in to catch the falling knives.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
9 Feb. 2026
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Becoming a master of quadruple jumps that no one else can land, rising with all the ease of a young Michael Jordan—before landing on a pair of butcher knives, on ice.—
Stephanie Bai,
The Atlantic,
8 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Cable-cutters can also tune into the NFL championship through a variety of Live TV streamers with access to NBC, such as DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and Sling TV (in select markets).—
Anna Tingley,
Variety,
8 Feb. 2026
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Multiple aircraft, cutters and small boats searched 1,047 square miles over 24 hours, finding debris near the location where the EPIRB was activated, along with one body and an unoccupied life raft that had been deployed.—
Alexandra Koch,
FOXNews.com,
4 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shanks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shanks. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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