bank

I. bank¹ S1 W1 /bæŋk/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[Sense 1,3,7: Date: 1400-1500; Language: French; Origin: banque, from Old Italian banca 'long seat, bank']
[Sense 2,4,6,8: Date: 1100-1200; Origin: Probably from a Scandinavian language. ]
[Sense 5: Date: 1200-1300; Language: Old French; Origin: banc 'long seat']
1. PLACE FOR MONEY
a) a business that keeps and lends money and provides other financial services
in the bank
We have very little money in the bank.
Barclays Bank
a bank loan
b) a local office of a bank:
I have to go to the bank at lunch time. ⇨ ↑clearing bank, ↑merchant bank
2. RIVER/LAKE land along the side of a river or lake
bank of
the banks of the River Dee
the river bank
3. blood/sperm/organ bank a place where human blood etc is stored until someone needs it
4. CLOUDS/MIST a large mass of clouds, mist etc:
a fog bank
bank of
banks of mist
5. RAISED AREA a large sloping mass of earth, sand, snow etc:
She was sitting on a grassy bank.
bank of
steep banks of snow
banks of flowers
6. MACHINES a large number of machines, television screens etc arranged close together in a row
bank of
banks of TV monitors
7. GAME a supply of money used to ↑gamble, that people can win ⇨ break the bank at ↑break¹(24)
8. be makin' bank American English spoken informal to earn a lot of money for the work that you do:
Check out Omar’s new car. The brother must be makin' bank.
9. ROAD a slope made at a bend in a road or ↑racetrack to make it safer for cars to go around
⇨ ↑bottle bank, ↑food bank, ↑memory bank
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ go to the bank I went to the bank and took out $80.
▪ borrow from a bank You may be able to borrow some money from the bank.
▪ a bank lends something The bank lent me £10,000 to help me start the business.
■ bank + NOUN
▪ a bank account How much do you have in your bank account at the moment?
▪ your bank balance (=the actual amount that you have in your bank account) I'm just going to check my bank balance online.
▪ a bank card You can withdraw money using your bank card.
▪ bank charges Will I have to pay bank charges on this account?
▪ a bank clerk (=a junior worker in a bank) He began his career as a bank clerk.
▪ a bank loan What's the interest rate on your bank loan?
▪ a bank note (=a piece of paper money) a $10 bank note
▪ a bank statement (=a written statement of how much you have in a bank account) I get a written bank statement once a month.
▪ a bank manager Could I make an appointment with the bank manager, please?
▪ a bank robber/robbery The bank robbers were never caught.
■ types of bank
▪ a high street bank (=one of the ordinary banks that most people use) There's a lot of competition between the major high street banks.
▪ a commercial bank (=an ordinary bank, or one that deals with large businesses) the role of UK commercial banks in the debt crisis
▪ an investment/merchant bank (=one that buys and sells stocks and shares etc) Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank
▪ a savings bank (=a bank that accepts your savings and provides mortgages)
▪ a clearing bank (=one of the banks in Britain that uses a clearing house when dealing with other banks) large commercial customers of the clearing banks
▪ a central bank (=the main financial authority in a country) The Bundesbank is the central bank of Germany.
▪ the World Bank (=an international organization providing financial help to developing countries) The road building was funded by the World Bank.

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

bank

bank [bank banks banked banking] noun, verb [bæŋk] [bæŋk]

noun

FOR MONEY
1. an organization that provides various financial services, for example keeping or lending money
• My salary is paid directly into my bank.
• I need to go to the bank (= the local office of a bank).
• a bank loan
• a bank manager

see also investment bank, merchant bank

IN GAMBLING

2. a supply of money or things that are used as money in some games, especially those in which gambling is involved

STH COLLECTED/STORED
3. an amount of sth that is collected; a place where sth is stored ready for use
• a bank of knowledge
• a blood/sperm bank

see also databank

OF RIVER/CANAL

4. the side of a river, canal, etc. and the land near it
• He jumped in and swam to the opposite bank.
• It's on the north bank of the Thames.

• a house on the banks of the River Severn (= on land near the river)

SLOPE

5. a raised area of ground that slopes at the sides, often at the edge of sth or dividing sth
• There were low banks of earth between the rice fields.

• The girls ran down the steep grassy bank.

6. an artificial slope built at the side of a road, so that cars can drive fast around bends

OF CLOUD/SNOW, ETC.
7. a mass of cloud, snow, etc, especially one formed by the wind

• The sun disappeared behind a bank of clouds.

OF MACHINES, ETC.

8. a row or series of similar objects, especially machines
• a bank of lights/switches/computers
more at laugh all the way to the bank at laugh _v.
Word Origin:
n. senses 4 to 8 and v. senses 3 to 5 Middle English Old Norse bakki Germanic bench ‘set of things in rows’ French banc
n. senses 1 to 3 and v. senses 1 to 2 late 15th cent. French banque Italian banca medieval Latin banca bancus Germanic bank bench

Culture:
banks and banking
In Britain, the central bank, which acts as banker for the state and commercial banks, is the Bank of England. The Governor of the Bank of England advises the government on financial matters. The bank sets national interest rates (= the cost of borrowing money) and is responsible for issuing banknotes.
The main commercial banks, called clearing banks or high-street banks, are NatWest, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and HSBC. These are known as the ‘big four’ and have branches in most towns. Former building societies that became banks in the mid 1990s, such as Abbey and the Halifax, now compete with them for customers. People can use a current account and. for savings, a deposit account.The high-street banks offer bank loans for individuals and small businesses. Merchant banks deal with company finance on a larger scale.
In the US there are thousands of banks. This is because banks are prevented by law from operating in more than one state. Some banks get round this rule by forming holding companies which own banks with the same names in different states. Unlike British banks, American banks are banks of deposit and credit and do not build up capital. Banking is dominated by large money center banks, such as Chase, which raise money by dealing in the international money markets and lend it to businesses and other banks.
The US central bank is the Federal Reserve Bank, often called the Fed. In addition to the national Fed in Washington, DC, there are 12 regional ones. The Fed tells commercial banks how much money they must keep in reserve and decides what rate of interest to charge when lending them money. This affects the rate of interest the commercial banks charge their customers.
In the US people keep their accounts in commercial banks which must have a charter (= permission to operate) from the US or a state government. Each state decides whether to allow branch banking, i.e. to allow customers to do business at any branch of a bank, not just the one where they have their account. People also keep money in savings and loans organizations. The most common accounts are checking and savings accounts.
Collocations:
Finance
Income
earn money/cash/(informal) a fortune
make money/a fortune/(informal) a killing on the stock market
acquire/inherit/amass wealth/a fortune
build up funds/savings
get/receive/leave (sb) an inheritance/a legacy
live on a low wage/a fixed income/a pension
get/receive/draw/collect a pension
depend/be dependent on (BrE) benefits/(NAmE) welfare/social security
Expenditure
spend money/your savings/(informal) a fortune on…
invest/put your savings in…
throw away/waste/ (informal) shell out money on…
lose your money/inheritance/pension
use up/ (informal) wipe out all your savings
pay (in) cash
use/pay by a credit/debit card
pay by/make out a/write sb a/accept a (BrE) cheque/(US) check
change/exchange money/currency (BrE) traveller's cheques/(US) traveler's checks
give/pay/leave (sb) a deposit
Banks
have/hold/open/close/freeze a bank account/an account
credit/debit/pay sth into/take money out of your account
deposit money/funds in your account
withdraw money/cash/£30 from an ATM, etc.
(formal) make a deposit/withdrawal
find/go to/use (especially NAmE) an ATM/(BrE) a cash machine/dispenser
be in credit/in debit/in the black/in the red/overdrawn
Personal finance
manage/handle/plan/run/ (especially BrE) sort out your finances
plan/manage/work out/stick to a budget
offer/extend credit (to sb)
arrange/take out a loan/an overdraft
pay back/repay money/a loan/a debt
pay for sth in (especially BrE) instalments/(NAmE usually) installments
Financial difficulties
get into debt/financial difficulties
be short of/ (informal) be strapped for cash
run out of/owe money
face/get/ (informal) be landed with a bill for £…
can't afford the cost of…/payments/rent
fall behind with/ (especially NAmE) fall behind on the mortgage/repayments/rent
incur/run up/accumulate debts
tackle/reduce/settle your debts
Example Bank:
• A group of ten international banks is to underwrite and sell the bonds.
• He got a large loan from the bank.
• I need to get some money out of the bank.
• I'll put half the money in the bank and spend the rest.
• Investors lost millions when the bank crashed.
• Many of these banks issue both credit and debit cards.
• She has her money in one of the largest savings banks.
• The River Frome had burst its banks after torrential rain.
• The bank charged him a monthly $5 fee.
• The bank lent her money to buy a car.
• The bond will be priced by the issuing bank.
• The central bank has put up interest rates.
• The children rolled down the grassy bank.
• The company owes the bank more than €4 million.
• The government has refused to bail out the bank.
• We could see them waving on the opposite bank.
• We strolled along the river bank.
• a huge bank of switches and buttons
• a picnic on the banks of the Thames
• a vast bank of cloud
• They intend to establish a bank of information which will be accessible to the public.
• a blood/sperm bank
Idiom: not break the bank

Derived: bank on somebody ▪ bank up

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition

bank / bæŋk / noun [ C ] (MONEY)

A1 an organization where people and businesses can invest or borrow money, change it to foreign money, etc., or a building where these services are offered:

High-street banks have been accused of exploiting small firms.

I need to go to the bank at lunch time.

I had to take out a bank loan to start my own business.

In gambling, the bank is money that belongs to the owner and can be won by the players.

bank / bæŋk / noun [ C ] (RIVER)

B2 sloping raised land, especially along the sides of a river:

By the time we reached the opposite bank, the boat was sinking fast.

These flowers generally grow on river banks and near streams.

bank / bæŋk / noun [ C ] (MASS)

a pile or mass of earth, clouds, etc.:

A dark bank of cloud loomed on the horizon.

bank / bæŋk / noun [ C ] (ROWS)

a row of similar things, especially machines or parts of machines:

a bank of switches

bank / bæŋk / noun [ C ] (STORE)

A bank of something, such as blood or human organs for medical use, is a place that stores these things for later use:

a blood bank

a sperm bank

Collins Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary

bank
I. FINANCE AND STORAGE

/bæŋk/

(banks, banking, banked)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
A bank is an institution where people or businesses can keep their money.
Which bank offers you the service that best suits your financial needs?...
I had £10,000 in the bank.
N-COUNT
2.
A bank is a building where a bank offers its services.
N-COUNT
3.
If you bank money, you pay it into a bank.
Once you have registered your particulars with an agency and it has banked your cheque, the process begins.
VERB: V n
4.
If you bank with a particular bank, you have an account with that bank.
My husband has banked with the Co-op since before the war.
VERB: V with n
5.
You use bank to refer to a store of something. For example, a blood bank is a store of blood that is kept ready for use.
...Britain’s National Police Computer, one of the largest data banks in the world.
N-COUNT: with supp, usu n N

II. AREAS AND MASSES

/bæŋk/

(banks)
1.
The banks of a river, canal, or lake are the raised areas of ground along its edge.
...30 miles of new developments along both banks of the Thames.
...an old warehouse on the banks of a canal.
= side
N-COUNT: usu N of n
2.
A bank of ground is a raised area of it with a flat top and one or two sloping sides.
...resting indolently upon a grassy bank.
N-COUNT
3.
A bank of something is a long high mass of it.
On their journey south they hit a bank of fog off the north-east coast of Scotland.
N-COUNT: N of n
4.
A bank of things, especially machines, switches, or dials, is a row of them, or a series of rows.
The typical laborer now sits in front of a bank of dials.
N-COUNT
5.
see also banked

III. OTHER VERB USES

/bæŋk/

(banks, banking, banked)
When an aircraft banks, one of its wings rises higher than the other, usually when it is changing direction.
A plane took off and banked above the highway in front of him.
VERB: V

Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary

bank
⁵bank noun, pl banks [count] : a group or series of objects that are arranged close together in a row - usually + of
• There is a bank of vending machines in the basement.
• Several banks of lights hung above the stage.
• a bank of file cabinets

- compare ¹bank ³bank

³bank noun, pl banks [count]
1 : the higher ground that is along the edge of a river, stream, etc.
• We sat on the bank of the river [=on the riverbank] to watch the boats.
• The stream overflowed its banks.
2 a : a steep slope : the side of a hill
• We planted bushes all along the bank in front of the house.
• They climbed a steep bank to get to the terrace.
- see also sandbank
b : a small hill that is built next to a road along a curve in order to make driving on that section of road safer
3 : a thick mass of clouds or fog
• a fog bank
• A bank of dark clouds entered the region.
- see also snowbank

¹bank /ˈbæŋk/ noun, pl banks [count]
1 : a business where people keep their money, borrow money, etc., or the building where such a business operates
• Our paychecks are deposited in/into the bank automatically.
• How much money do you have in the bank?
• My cousin works in/at a bank.
• I have to go to the bank today.
- often used before another noun
• bank customers
• How much money do you have in your bank account?
- see also savings bank
2 : a small closed container in which money is saved
• She saves all her change in a small bank on her desk.
- see also piggy bank
3 : a place where a particular thing is stored until it is needed
• information stored in a computer's memory banks
- see also blood bank, sperm bank
break the bank : to be very expensive or too expensive : to cost a lot of money - usually used in negative statements
• Buy a car that's dependable but won't break the bank.
laugh all the way to the bank