Hanky-pank
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of hanky-panky. countable, uncountable
"He was interested at once, and also at once made proclamation that all such performances were "hanky-pank," and that he could duplicate any of them."
- 2 A carnival game which guarantees a winner. countable, slang, uncountable
"That means if you book a couple of games of hanky pank, I'll allow you to book an alibi with them so if the kids win something we will rip off dad, that seems fair."
- 3 A nonce word. countable, uncountable
"... him that that was none of his dad-blamed hanky-pank business, although I ached to tell him that and several other things."
- 1 To engage in hanky-panky.
"He knew why he was so deeply angry: this situation had corrupted a fine young engineer, had lost him to the profession, while he, Drew, had hanky-panked with the enemy in the deluded belief that the conflict was not real."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"He was interested at once, and also at once made proclamation that all such performances were "hanky-pank," and that he could duplicate any of them."
Etymology
Clipping of hanky-panky
More for "hanky-pank"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.