Definition of: plank

(plangk) noun
1. A broad piece of sawed timber, thicker than a board.
2. Timber when sawed into planks.
3. Anything that sustains or upholds; a support.
4. One of the principles of a political platform.
—to walk the plank To walk off a plank projecting from the side of a ship: a method once used by pirates for executing prisoners.
—v.t.
1. To cover, furnish, or lay with planks.
2. To broil or bake and serve on a plank, as fish.
3. Colloq. To put down emphatically or forcibly.
4. Colloq. To pay: with out, down, etc. [<AF planke <LL planca a board, slab, prob. <Gk. plax, plakos flat]