shylock
shy·lock
shylock · shylocks
A loan shark; a usurerA loan shark; a usurer.
UK/ˈʃaɪlɒk/US/ˈʃaɪlɑk/
» Shylock is greedy, and what is worse, very stingy.
Swift · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(US, figuratively, offensive)A loan shark; a usurer.
a merciless usurer in a play by Shakespeare
(ethnic, offensive, slur)A person of Jewish descent.
Examples
2 sentencesShylock is greedy, and what is worse, very stingy.
Al Pacino played Shylock in a version of The Merchant of Venice.
Origin
From the character Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1600).From the character Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1600).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: shylocksSynonyms
3 synonymsClose in meaning
- someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest:usurerloan sharkmoneylender
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.