noun, verb General Slang

shank

· noun, verb · mle

A knife — or to stab someone with one.

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Definitions

1

A knife, particularly a blade carried as a weapon. Core MLE street vocab — used across UK drill, road rap and everyday London slang. Originally prison slang for an improvised blade, it migrated into the ends decades ago and stuck.

“Police stopped him and found a shank in his waistband.”
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2

To stab someone. Verb form of the noun, same energy. Heavy word — used both literally in road talk and hyperbolically when someone's furious.

“He got shanked outside the chicken shop over a postcode beef.”
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3

A homemade stabbing weapon knocked up inside a prison — a sharpened toothbrush handle, a melted comb with a razor in the end, a filed-down piece of bedframe. Anything you can hide and stab with. Used both as a noun ('he had a shank in his sock') and a verb ('he got shanked in the yard').

“They found a shank made out of a toothbrush taped to a razor blade under his mattress.”
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4

Verb: to stab someone, especially with an improvised weapon.

“He got shanked over a pack of noodles.”
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shank In A Sentence

Police stopped him and found a shank in his waistband.
He got shanked outside the chicken shop over a postcode beef.

Origin & Usage

American prison slang from the early 1900s for a homemade blade. Crossed into UK street usage and got absorbed into MLE.

Variants shankedshanking
Tags #mle#london#road#british#weapon

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