shylock
/ˈʃaɪlɑk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A moneylender (Jewish stereotype) in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
noun
Alternative letter-case form of shylock.
Example Sentences
- "Eventually, their gambling debts grow so big that they are cut off from making any more bets, eliminating the chance that they can make enough money to satisfy their shylocks."
- "If a guy got into hock with several shylocks from different crews and was unable to keep up with his weekly payments, a sit-down would have to be called with all of the shylocks involved and their respective capos."
- "After Caspian's father killed his credit lines at all the big casinos, he ran up a six-figure tab with a couple of shylocks in Miami, then couldn't make the vig."
- "I wanted to know whether shylocking is a legal business or not, and if it is legal, under which Act does it operate?"
- "When you've accumulated a good stash of money, you may want to go into the nightclub business, or shylocking. Shylocking is free. There is no ten percent vig on loan sharking."
- "Lori said it sounded outright felonious, but Dad said all he was doing was outsmarting the fat-cat bank owners who shylocked the common man by charging usurious interest rates."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: שלח, skīr-lokk
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃaɪlɑk/
- British English: /ˈʃaɪlɒk/
Usage
- American usage
- Offensive
- Intransitive verb
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Shylockian
Shylockism