Толковый словарь английского языка

[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.

1. MONEY

a) [transitive] to put or keep money in a bank:

Did you bank that check?

b) [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to keep your money in a particular bank

bank with

Who do you bank with?

bank at

I’ve always banked at First Interstate.

2. PLANE [intransitive] if a plane banks, it slopes to one side when turning:

The plane banked, and circled back toward us.

3. PILE/ROWS (also bank up) [transitive] British English to arrange something into a pile or into rows:

Snow was banked up on either side of the road.

4. CLOUD/MIST (also bank up) [transitive] to form a mass of cloud, mist etc:

Banked clouds promised rain.

5. FIRE (also bank up) [transitive] to cover a fire with wood or coal to keep it going for a long time:

Josie banked up the fire to last till morning.

bank on somebody/something phrasal verb

to depend on something happening or someone doing something SYN count on

bank on (somebody) doing something

I was banking on being able to get some coffee on the train.