different between trotter vs shank

English

Etymology

From Middle English trottere, equivalent to trot +? -er.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

trotter (plural trotters)

1. One who trots.
   • 2013, Stephen Dobyns, Saratoga Bestiary

     Charlie kept telling himself that Eddie Gillespie was the great runner, while he was just a quick trotter.

2. In harness racing, a horse with a gait in which the front and back legs on opposite sides take a step together alternating with the other set of opposite legs; as opposed to a pacer.
3. The foot of a pig, sheep, or other quadruped.
4. (slang) A person's foot.
   • 2004, Charley Hester, ?Kirby Ross, The True Life Wild West Memoir of a Bush-popping Cow Waddy (page 27)

     Then you get up on your trotters, but you have a job to stand; / For the landscape 'round you totters and your collar's full of sand.

5. (Britain, historical) A tailor's assistant who goes around to receive orders.
   • 1830, William Cobbett, Eleven Lectures on the French and Belgian Revolutions (page 8)

     One of these proprietors is a magistrate of Oxfordshire, another a justice of the peace for Berkshire, and Stewart, who was a tailor's trotter, originally, was lately high sherriff ^[sic] of his county.

Translations

French

Etymology

From Middle French trotter, from Old French trotter, troter (“to go, trot”), from Medieval Latin *trott?re, *trot?re (“to go”), from Frankish *trott?n (“to go, run”), from Proto-Germanic *trud?n?, *trudan?, *tradjan? (“to go, step, tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreu-, *der?-, *dr?- (“to run, escape”). Cognates: see English trot. More at tread.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??.te/

Verb

trotter

1. (usually of a horse) to trot

Conjugation

Derived terms

• trottiner
• trottoir

Further reading

• “trotter” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle English schanke, from Old English s?anca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skank?, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Norwegian skank), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek ????? (skáz?, “to limp”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Noun

shank (plural shanks)

1. The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
2. Meat from that part of an animal.
3. (ornithology, colloquial) A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.
4. A straight, narrow part of an object, such as a key or an anchor; shaft; stem.
5. The handle of a pair of shears, connecting the ride to the neck.
6. The center part of a fishhook between the eye and the hook, the 'hook' being the curved part that bends toward the point.
7. A protruding part of an object, by which it is or can be attached.
8. The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.
9. (sports) A poorly played golf shot in which the ball is struck by the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
10. (slang) An improvised stabbing weapon; a shiv.
11. A loop forming an eye to a button.
12. (architecture) The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gwilt to this entry?)

13. (metalworking) A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
14. (printing, dated) The body of a type; between the shoulder and the foot.
15. (shoemaking) The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
16. Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
17. The end or remainder, particularly of a period of time.
18. The main part or beginning of a period of time.

Synonyms

(improvised stabbing weapon): shiv (slang)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shank (third-person singular simple present shanks, present participle shanking, simple past and past participle shanked)

1. (archaic, Ulster) To travel on foot.
2. (slang) To stab, especially with an improvised blade.
3. (slang) To remove another's trousers, especially in jest; to depants.
4. (transitive, golf) To misstrike the ball with the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
5. (transitive, chiefly tennis, soccer, gridiron football) To hit or kick the ball in an unintended direction.
6. (intransitive) To fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.
   • 1861, Charles Darwin, Cause of the variation of flowers

     the gerrnens of these swelled, and on four out of the six I have now got fine pods, above 1% inch in length, with the seeds externally visible; whereas the flower stalks of the many other flowers all shanked off.

7. (transitive, sewing) To provide (a button) with a shank (loop forming an eye).
   • 2000, The Indian Textile Journal (volume 110, issues 7-12)

     The system is suitable for shanking all kind of sewn buttons (jackets, coats, blouses, shirts, trousers).

8. (shoemaking) To apply the shank to a shoe, during the process of manufacturing it.
   • 1986 March 6, "Factory Work" [Poetry, 147], quoted in 2009, Deborah Boe, The Girl of the Early Race: Poems, Gegensatz Press (?ISBN):

     I take those metal shanks, slide the backs of them in glue and make them lie down on the shoe-bottoms, […] Last week they ran a contest to see which shankers shanked fastest. I'm not embarrassed to say I beat them all.

Synonyms

(to stab with an improvised weapon): shiv (slang)

(to remove another's pants): depants (slang)

Adjective

shank (comparative shanker, superlative shankest)

1. (slang) Bad.

See also

• shank it
• (poorly played golf shot): thin, fat, toe

Anagrams

• Hanks, Naskh, ankhs, hanks, khans