Forms: α. 4 stanc, 4, 7 stanck(e, 4–5 staunk(e, (5 stonke), 5, 7 stanke, (7 Sc. stunk), 9. dial. stenk, 3– stank. β. 3–6 stang, 5–6 stange, (6 staung). [a. OF. estanc (mod.F. étang) = Pr. estanc-s, Sp. estanque, Pg. estanque, estanco:—Com. Rom. *stanco, prob. vbl. noun to *stancare to dam up (:—popular L. *stagnicāre f. stagnum pond): see STANCH v.]
1. A pond or pool. Also a ditch or dyke of slowly moving water, a moat. Now Sc. and dial.
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 5922. On stank and burn and well.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), 68. Þei lighted & abiden biside a water stank [rhyme lang].
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1018. A stynkande stanc.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xix. 209. Bestes, taughte of men to gon in to Watres … and in to depe Stankes, for to take Fysche.
1450. Paston Lett., I. 170. Sir John Bukk … physshed my stankys at Dedham, and holp brake my damme.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 2982. In an Ile he duelt … Whar þan was a grete staunk; Of derwent watir þare is þe hede.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), I. 208. Ane nobill toun … That wallit wes about with lyme and stone, With dowbill stank and fowsseis mony one.
1603. J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 32/1. Stanckes, Moores, and Lakes that never ryn.
c. 1630. in Macfarlane’s Geogr. Collect. (1907), II. 165. It is now one little Logh being but ane stunk before when the Illand was in the midst of it.
c. 1690. in Roxb. Ball. (1888), VI. 616. O’er ditch and stank, he staik amang them a’ then.
1786. Burns, Auld Mare, iii. Thou ance … could hae flown out owre a stank, Like onie bird.
1807. Stagg, Poems, 3. Wi’ whup an’ spur, thro’ stenk an’ stoore, [they] Set off, a jolly party.
1825. Carlyle, Lett., in Froude, Life (1882), I. 296. If he … is made to plash and sprawl … through every stank to which their love of provant leads them.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb (1873), 31. I b’lieve ye he’ll no loup the stank so easy wi’ Maister Saun’ers.
β. a. 1300. Cursor M., 8936. Ilk dai … Þar lighted dun of heuen ture Angels … For to stir þe stang bidene.
a. 1340. Hampole, Ps. cxiii. 8. That turnys the stanys in stangis of watirs.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. x. A stange or pond where as was a fayr mylle.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 7. The stang or ponde of the forest.
1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 205. They haue their stanges for the most part full of fish.
c. 1595. Norden, Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728), 71. Ther standeth a Stange or Poole of water.
transf. 13[?]. Cursor M., 23191 (Gött.). Sathanas … sal casten be,… a stinckand stanck of fire.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., 841. Seint Iohn seith that Auowtiers shullen been in helle, in a stank brennynge of fyr and of Brymston.
2. A dam to hold back water, a weir or floodgate. Now dial. and techn.
1604. Jrnls. Ho. Comm., 23 June. All Weres, Kiddells, Stanks, and other Obstructions in … navigable Rivers.
1610. Vaughan, in J. Davies’ Wks. (Grosart), II. 4/1. The Brookes runne murmuring by their parched Brincks … and chide against the Stancks.
1633. in N. Riding Rec. (1885), III. II. 347. Att the stancke or damm of the abovenamed mill.
1656. R. Fletcher, Martial’s Epigr., etc. 167. An inundation that ore-bears the banks And bounds of all religion; If some stancks Shew their emergent heads? Like Seth’s fam’d stone, Th’are monuments of thy devotion gone!
1763. in J. Lloyd, Old S. Wales Iron Works (1906), 73. To make such … channels … pondheads, stanks, and wears as they shall think fit.
1855. Gawthrop, Fraser’s Guide to L’pool, 235. Crossing the stank, or bar, between Seacombe and Woodside.
1865. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., Ser. II. I. II. 277. The cutting through one of these subterranean stanks or ridges will often lay a large tract immediately dry.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 238. Stank. A water-light stopping; generally a well built brick wall.
3. attrib. and Comb. as stank-head, -side; stank-brae, the edge of a stank; stank-hen, the moorhen, Gallinula chloropus; stank-meadow, a meadow containing a pool.
1579. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1581, 73/1. The *stank bra on the eist syde.
c. 1680. J. Russell, in Kirkton’s Hist. Ch. Scot. (1817), 443. Presently Clavers advanced all in a body to the stank bree.
1412–3. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 610. Pro reparacione de le *Stankhede apud Ketton, 4s.
1766. Reid, Lett., Wks. I. 47/2. A bird called a *stankhen. It is a water fowl, less than a duck [etc.].
1831. Montagu’s Ornith. Dict., 188. Gallinule. Provincial.—Moor-hen…. Stank-hen.
1358. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 561. In diversis foveis et gutturis factis in le *Staunkmedowe de Pityngton, 12s. 1d.
14[?]. Prose Life Alexander, 71 Þay … went to þe *stankesyde & drewe fisches & elez oute of þe water, & ete þam.
1903. A. Whyte, Apostle Paul, x. 111. It is then that I sit down at a stank-side with poor Lord Brodie.
