Shylock

[ shahy-lok ]

noun
  1. a relentless and revengeful moneylender in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

  2. a hard-hearted moneylender.

verb (used without object)
  1. (lowercase) to lend money at extortionate rates of interest.

Other words from Shylock

  • Shy·lock·i·an, adjective
  • Shy·lock·y, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Shylock in a sentence

  • It may be said to their credit, however, that as Shylocks the Arabs can surpass them.

    The Old World and Its Ways | William Jennings Bryan
  • I'll go broke dealing with you unsophisticated Shylocks of the range.

    The Sheriff's Son | William MacLeod Raine
  • Morsels had to be snatched out of the mouth of the poor to get revenue for the war and the pound of flesh for the Shylocks.

    The Iron Ration | George Abel Schreiner
  • The charitable are often no better than Shylocks, they want their money's worth.

  • In his dress he affected a fashionable style, much used by the modern school of Shylocks.

    Caught In The Net | Emile Gaboriau

British Dictionary definitions for Shylock

Shylock

/ (ˈʃaɪˌlɒk) /


noun
  1. a heartless or demanding creditor

Origin of Shylock

1
C19: after Shylock, the name of the heartless usurer in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1596)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Shylock

Shylock

The merciless moneylender in The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare. He demands a pound of flesh (see also pound of flesh) from the title character of the play after the merchant defaults on his debt.

Notes for Shylock

Shylock is a Jew (see also Jews), and there has long been controversy over whether Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock contributes to prejudice against Jews. Shylock is a cruel miser and eventually is heavily fined and disgraced, but he maintains his dignity. At one point in the play, he makes a famous, eloquent assertion that his desire for revenge is the same desire that a Christian would feel in his place. “I am a Jew,” says Shylock. “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.