hank

plural hanks

1. A coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope.

   1681, E.R., The Experienced Farrier, London, p. 307, […] the best thing of all to stop bleeding at the Nose, is to take a Hank of Coventry-blew thread, and hang it cross a stick, and set one end of it on fire […] and let him receive the smoak up his Nostrils […]

   4 more examples

   Cotton twist is spun here of 130 hanks to the pound. Each hank is 840 yards long […]

   1796, Thomas Pennant, “History of Holywell Parish,”, in The History of the Parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell, London: B. and J. White, page 217

   […] her hair was as straight as a hank of cotton.

   1859, George Eliot, chapter 9, in Adam Bede, volume 1, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, page 181

   The past year or two had brought knitting-needles into countenance for men, and he saw no reason why he should not put a few hanks of yarn into shape useful for himself.

   1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 14, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 131

   He found a hank of clothesline on a counter.

   1957, Nevil Shute, chapter 9, in On the Beach, New York: William Morrow

2. nauticalA ring or shackle that secures a staysail to its stay and allows the sail to glide smoothly up and down.
3. UlsterDoubt, difficulty.
4. UlsterMess, tangle.
5. A rope or withe for fastening a gate.
6. obsoleteHold; influence.

   Seldom doth a man fall into a Preſumptuous Sin, but vvhere the Devil hath got ſuch a hanke over him, […]

   1636 July (date delivered), Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Aulam.] Sermon IV. Beuvoyr, July 1636”, in XXXIV Sermons. […], 5th edition, London: […] [A. Clark] for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge, […], published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 43, page 59

7. governmentA throw in which a wrestler turns his left side to his opponent, twines his left leg about his opponent's right leg from the inside, and throws him backward.

present singular third person hanks · participle present hanking · participle past hanked · past hanked

1. transitiveTo form into hanks.
2. UKdialectaltransitiveTo fasten with a rope, as a gate.

   where stood a fyne howse newly built and vaulted, over wheron her armes was sett and hanked with tapestrye

   1573, Richard Dering, “Accounts Book”, in The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, John Nichols, published 1823

plural Hanks

1. A diminutive of the male given name Henry.
2. archaicA diminutive of the male given name Hankin (a medieval form of John).