Plank

[plangk] /plæŋk/

noun
1.
a long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board.
2.
lumber in such pieces; .
3.
something to stand on or to cling to for support.
4.
any one of the stated principles or objectives comprising the political platform of a party campaigning for election:
They fought for a plank supporting a nuclear freeze.
verb (used with object)
5.
to lay, cover, or furnish with planks.
6.
to bake or broil and serve (steak, fish, chicken, etc.) on a wooden board.
7.
(def 2).
Idioms
8.
walk the plank,

/plæŋk/
noun
1.
a stout length of sawn timber
2.
something that supports or sustains
3.
one of the policies in a political party’s programme
4.
walk the plank, to be forced by pirates to walk to one’s death off the end of a plank jutting out over the water from the side of a ship
5.
(Brit, slang) a stupid person; idiot
verb (transitive)
6.
to cover or provide (an area) with planks
7.
to beat (meat) to make it tender
8.
(mainly US & Canadian) to cook or serve (meat or fish) on a special wooden board
/plæŋk/
verb
1.
(transitive) (Scot) to hide; cache
n.

late 13c. (c.1200 as a surname), from Old North French planke, variant of Old French planche “plank, slab, little wooden bridge” (12c.), from Late Latin planca “broad slab, board,” probably from Latin plancus “flat, flat-footed,” from PIE *plak- (1) “to be flat” (see placenta). Technically, timber sawed to measure 2 to 6 inches thick, 9 inches or more wide, and 8 feet or more long. Political sense of “item of a party platform” is U.S. coinage from 1848. To walk the plank, supposedly a pirate punishment, is first attested 1789 and most early references are to slave-traders disposing of excess human cargo in crossing the ocean.

verb

To do the sex act with or to; screw: had witless good fun with his children while his wife was out getting planked

[1970s+; origin unknown]

Related Terms

walk the plank

verb phrase

[1839+; fr the hard striking of the plank of a table]
see: walk the plank