Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Disagreeably damp or humid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make dank; moisten.
  • Damp; moist; saturated with cold moisture.
  • Synonyms Damp, Humid, etc. See moist.
  • noun Cold moisture; unpleasant humidity.
  • noun Water, in general.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Moisture; humidity; water.
  • noun A small silver coin current in Persia.
  • adjective Damp; moist; humid; wet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete (intransitive) To moisten, dampen; used of mist, dew etc.
  • noun A small silver coin formerly used in Persia.
  • adjective dark, damp and humid.
  • adjective figuratively highly potent

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unpleasantly cool and humid

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, probably of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English danke, first recorded circa 1310 (as verb; circa 1410 as noun), Germanic: perhaps from Scandinavian or German.

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Examples

  • But the compound subject is really equivalent to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp.

    Milton's Comus John Milton 1641

  • Actually to call it dank is a tad untrue - we were blessed with clear blue skies which lit up leaves, hips and haws.

    A portrait of Snailbeach 2008

  • Actually to call it dank is a tad untrue - we were blessed with clear blue skies which lit up leaves, hips and haws.

    Archive 2008-10-01 2008

  • Remember when flat, uncomfortable inclining lifts were installed in dank, musty homes?

    Strange Stairs 2009

  • The second excerpt (located at a separate URL) describes his encounter with a homeless man living in dank tunnel near the airport, who has fashioned himself an elevated bed that manages to stay above the water line even during major flooding.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • David, #253: Ah, yes -- when Houston gets cold, it also tends to get dank, which is worse.

    Making Light: Snowpocalypse Part Next 2009

  • Doctors wheel a girl through what can only be described as a dank dungeon.

    Guilty Pleasure – Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers…with Paul Rudd?!? | MovieChopShop 2009

  • It was delightful and satisfying to come into the spacious and cozy livingroom, filled with overstuffed easychairs and comfortable couches, warmed by the most efficient of centralheating systems or to use one of the perfectly appointed bathrooms whose every fixture was the best money could buy and recall the dank stone floors and walls leading up to a mammoth and -- from a thermal point of view -- perfectly useless fireplace flanked by the coatsofarms of deadandgone gentry who were content to shuffle out on inclement mornings to answer nature's calls in chilly outhouses.

    Greener Than You Think Ward Moore 1940

  • Although any beer with "dank" in its name seems to me to have limited commerical appeal.

    :Acquired Taste Tim Stretton 2010

  • There's something kind of dank and nasty about "under the sink"....

    Continued Adventures in Our German Kitchen C N Heidelberg 2008

Comments

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  • your life is your life

    don't let it be clubbed into dank submission.

    be on the watch.

    there are ways out.

    there is a light somewhere.

    it may not be much light but

    it beats darkness.

    be on the watch.

    the gods offer you chances.

    - Charles Bukowski, 'The Laughing Heart'.

    December 5, 2008

  • a noun as well, in cruder circumstances

    July 21, 2009

  • Wordie has been known to countenance cruder circumstances.

    July 29, 2009