cank

English

Etymology

From Middle English *cank (compare Middle English cang (“foolish"; also "fool”, adj and noun) > obsolete English cank (“dumb, stupid”)), from Old English canc, ġecanc (“scorn, jeering”), from Proto-West Germanic *kank, from Proto-Germanic *kanką (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *geng-, *genǵ- (“to mock, insult”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kæŋk/

Noun

cank (countable and uncountable, plural canks)

  1. (UK, dialectal) Gossip, chatter.
  2. (UK, dialectal) A chat.
  3. (UK, dialectal) A gossip, tell-tale.
  4. (UK, dialectal) The cry of a goose.
  5. (UK, dialectal) A fit of ill-humour.

Verb

cank (third-person singular simple present canks, present participle canking, simple past and past participle canked)

  1. (UK, dialectal) To gossip, prate, chatter.
    • 1880, Ellen Wood, Johnny Ludlow, volume 1, page 67:
      He said that what he had told me wasn't meant to be repeated again, and I ought not to have gone canking it about, especially to the Rymers theirselves[sic]; […]
  2. (UK, dialectal) To talk rapidly; gabble.
  3. (UK, dialectal) To cackle, as geese.

Anagrams

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