cank

English

Etymology

From Middle English *cank (compare Middle English cang (“foolish"; also "fool”, adj and noun) > obsolete English cank (“dumb, stupid”)), from Old English canc, ġecanc (“scorn, jeering”), from Proto-West Germanic *kank, from Proto-Germanic *kanką (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *geng-, *genǵ- (“to mock, insult”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæŋk/

Noun

cank (countable and uncountable, plural canks)

1. (UK, dialectal) Gossip, chatter.
2. (UK, dialectal) A chat.
3. (UK, dialectal) A gossip, tell-tale.
4. (UK, dialectal) The cry of a goose.
5. (UK, dialectal) A fit of ill-humour.

Verb

cank (third-person singular simple present canks, present participle canking, simple past and past participle canked)

1. (UK, dialectal) To gossip, prate, chatter.
   • 1880, Ellen Wood, Johnny Ludlow, volume 1, page 67:

     He said that what he had told me wasn't meant to be repeated again, and I ought not to have gone canking it about, especially to the Rymers theirselves^[sic]; […]

2. (UK, dialectal) To talk rapidly; gabble.
3. (UK, dialectal) To cackle, as geese.