banker

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbæŋkə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbæŋkɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)

From bank +‎ -er, after French banquier.

banker (plural bankers)

1. One who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for traffic in money, bills of exchange, etc.
   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     I have a good banker in this city, but I would not wish to draw upon the house until the time when I shall draw for a round sum.

2. The dealer in a casino, or one who keeps the bank in a banking game.
3. (obsolete) A money changer.
4. The stone bench on which a mason cuts or squares his work.^[1]
   • 1895, Thomas Hardy, “II-ii”, in Jude the Obscure, London: Osgood:

     [T]he new traceries, mullions, transoms, shafts, pinnacles, and battlements standing on the bankers half worked[.]

5. (stationery) A type of envelope with a diamond shape or V-flap that opens on the long edge.

   Synonyms: banker's envelope, invitation envelope

• usurer (offering loans, esp. at very high interest); loan shark (independent, offering loans at high interest); saraf (early modern Middle East & India); shroff (early modern India & SE Asia)

• bank
• banking

• → German: Banker
• → Punjabi: ਬੈਂਕਰ (baiṅkar)

From bank (“an elevation, or rising ground”) +‎ -er (relational noun suffix) or +‎ -er (occupational suffix).

banker (plural bankers)

1. A vessel employed in the cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland.
   • May 20 1815, John Quincy Adams, letter to a merchant

     I think the 584 Bankers may be put down 36,540 tons, navigated by 4,627 men and boys

2. (UK, dialect) A ditcher; a drain digger.
   • 1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 6:

     But this was no storm, the bankers could have told him. It was break of the year.

3. (mining) Synonym of browman.
4. (Australia, colloquial) A watercourse filled from bank to bank.

From bank on +‎ -er.

banker (plural bankers)

1. (UK, gambling) A bet that is almost certain to succeed.
2. (UK, by extension) A very safe option.
   • 2018 December 19, Gary Neville, quotee, “Gary Neville on The Debate: Manchester United, Jose Mourinho and what's next at Old Trafford”, in Sky Sports‎^[1], retrieved 23 July 2025:

     When Jose came to Manchester United, two and a half years ago, this was the no-brainer, the banker, the one which couldn't fail. The one who had never failed.

• See Thesaurus:sure thing.

From bank (“an incline or hill”) +‎ -er.

banker (plural bankers)

1. (rail transport, British, Australia) A railway locomotive that can be attached to the rear of a train to assist it in climbing an incline.
   • 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:

     Between them these engines work passenger trains on the Keith line, and also act as bankers up to Dava when required.

   • 1960 May, “Motive Power Miscellany: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 314:

     Because of a shortage of W.R. pannier tanks, two "E6" 0-6-2 tanks, Nos. 32410/5, were engaged as bankers on the Folkestone Harbour branch at the beginning of March; [...].

• (railway locomotive): bank engine, banking engine (UK), helper, helper engine (US)

• barken

banker c pl

1. indefinite plural of bank

banker

1. present of banke

banker m

1. banker

From banke +‎ -er.

banker m (definite singular bankeren, indefinite plural bankere, definite plural bankerne)

1. a beater (implement used for beating)

• teppebanker

banker m pl

1. indefinite plural of bank.
2. indefinite plural of banke

banker

1. present of banke

• “banker_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

banker

1. indefinite plural of bank

• barken

From Ottoman Turkish بانكر (banḱer), from French banquier.

• IPA^(key): /ban.cɛɾ/

• Audio:

  (file)

banker (definite accusative bankeri, plural bankerler)

1. banker
2. (idiomatic) rich person