Found 1 items, similar to To walk the plank.
English → English (gcide)
Definition: To walk the plank
Plank
\Plank\, n. [OE. planke, OF. planque, planche, F. planche,
fr. L. planca; cf. Gr. ?, ?, anything flat and broad. Cf.
Planch.]
1. A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only
in being thicker. See
Board.
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2. Fig.: That which supports or upholds, as a board does a
swimmer.
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His charity is a better plank than the faith of an
intolerant and bitter-minded bigot. --Southey.
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3. One of the separate articles in a declaration of the
principles of a party or cause; as, a plank in the
national platform. [Cant]
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Plank road, or
Plank way, a road surface formed of
planks. [U.S.]
To walk the plank, to walk along a plank laid across the
bulwark of a ship, until one overbalances it and falls
into the sea; -- a method of disposing of captives
practiced by pirates.
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Walk
\Walk\, v. t.
1. To pass through, over, or upon; to traverse; to
perambulate; as, to walk the streets.
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As we walk our earthly round. --Keble.
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2. To cause to walk; to lead, drive, or ride with a slow
pace; as, to walk one's horses; to walk the dog.
“ I will
rather trust . . . a thief to walk my ambling gelding.”
--Shak.
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3. [AS. wealcan to roll. See
Walk to move on foot.] To
subject, as cloth or yarn, to the fulling process; to
full. [Obs. or Scot.]
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4. (Sporting) To put or keep (a puppy) in a walk; to train
(puppies) in a walk. [Cant]
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5. To move in a manner likened to walking. [Colloq.]
She walked a spinning wheel into the house, making
it use first one and then the other of its own
spindling legs to achieve progression rather than
lifting it by main force. --C. E.
Craddock.
To walk one's chalks, to make off; take French leave.
To walk the plank, to walk off the plank into the water and
be drowned; -- an expression derived from the practice of
pirates who extended a plank from the side of a ship, and
compelled those whom they would drown to walk off into the
water; figuratively, to vacate an office by compulsion.
--Bartlett.
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