Sheepshank

//ˈʃiːpʃæŋk// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of knot which is useful for shortening a rope or taking up slack without cutting it.
  2. 2
    a knot for shortening a line wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To shorten (a rope) using a sheepshank knot. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
knot

Etymology

Originally sheepshank knot or sheepshanks knot, from sheep + shank (“part of the leg between the knee and ankle”); the connection between the knot and a sheep’s leg is unclear.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.