Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a stiletto-like weapon, similar to a screwdriver, used by street gangs, prisoners etc.

1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 98: Every time I see a nab I want to stick a shank in his back.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 167: Are you going to help me get that shank?
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 48: Colorado had a shank he kept in a soap bar.
1989		Hartford Courant (CT) 30 Oct. 88/5: An inmate [...] stabbed another inmate with an 8-inch-long shank or home-made knife.
1994		Rebennack & Rummel Under A Hoodoo Moon 137: Wayne pulled a shank on a guy, jacked him up against a wall, and took him off.
2001		Source Aug. 148: You see that newspaper right there, cuz? I can make that into a spear! That DVD case? A shank.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 163/1: shank n. 1 a knife or blade .
2008		(ref. to 1971) F. Dennis ‘Old Bailey’ Homeless in my Heart 183: Where the lags can make you a cutter [...] Where screws are as thick as a plank, / And the cries of a man as he begs / While they cut his balls with a shank.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 165: This inmate [...] approached Miller with a shank, an improvised knife.
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 They found 75 shanks in two days. These sonsabitches is dangerous, y’all.
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] ‘It is my client’s assertion that the shank [i.e. a sharpened plastic toothbrush] was never in his possession [...] but was brought to the scene by one of his assailants’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 68: They run around with razors and all types of shanks.

2. (also shanker) any form of knife.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 164: Ah stick mah shank en you goozul pipe.
1974		R. Carter Sixteenth Round (1991) 330: I sat there all through the night lovingly caressing a twelve-inch shank.
1981		Pacific Reporter 2nd ser. Vol. 617 1150: Appellant [...] denied his having possessed any shank and denied any attempt to stab the officers.
1992		G. Edwards q. in Govenar & Brakefield Deep Ellum (1998) 176: They'd pitch them old East Dallas shankers on there, and we'd go to the wall and stick 'em in there and break them old long blades off.
1999		Guardian Weekend 6 Nov. 40: I gotta go back and get the shanks [homemade knives].
2003		News-Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 6 Sept. 13/6: He was coming in my direction. He had a shank in his hand.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 2: Two brothers ran into the shop armed with long shanks.
2015		410 ‘Four Door Coming’ 🎵 On your block with 4 man, 3 shanks one man’s holding a gun.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 36: Shanks in pockets .

3. in fig. use, an attack, a ‘stab in the back’.

2023

Bluesky 1 Dec. 🌐 [T]he line about [Kissinger] continuing to offer his advice very close to ‘he wouldn't fucking shut up’ as you can get in a non-deranged official statement [...] Yes, it’s a total shank.