hank

Etymology

From Middle English hank, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse hǫnk, hank; akin to Old English hangian (“to hang”). First known use: 14th century.

noun

1. A coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope.
   Coordinate term: skein
   1681, E.R., The Experienced Farrier, London, p. 307, […] the best thing of all to stop bleeding at the Nose, is to take a Hank of Coventry-blew thread, and hang it cross a stick, and set one end of it on fire […] and let him receive the smoak up his Nostrils […]
   Cotton twist is spun here of 130 hanks to the pound. Each hank is 840 yards long […] 1796, Thomas Pennant, “History of Holywell Parish,”, in The History of the Parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell, London: B. and J. White, page 217
   […] her hair was as straight as a hank of cotton. 1859, George Eliot, chapter 9, in Adam Bede, volume 1, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, page 181
   The past year or two had brought knitting-needles into countenance for men, and he saw no reason why he should not put a few hanks of yarn into shape useful for himself. 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 14, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 131
   He found a hank of clothesline on a counter. 1957, Nevil Shute, chapter 9, in On the Beach, New York: William Morrow
2. (nautical) A ring or shackle that secures a staysail to its stay and allows the sail to glide smoothly up and down.
3. (Ulster) Doubt, difficulty.
4. (Ulster) Mess, tangle.
5. A rope or withe for fastening a gate.
6. (obsolete) Hold; influence.
7. (wrestling) A throw in which a wrestler turns his left side to his opponent, twines his left leg about his opponent's right leg from the inside, and throws him backward.

verb

1. (transitive) To form into hanks.
2. (transitive, UK, dialect) To fasten with a rope, as a gate.
   where stood a fyne howse newly built and vaulted, over wheron her armes was sett and hanked with tapestrye 1573, Richard Dering, “Accounts Book”, in The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, John Nichols, published 1823