shank

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The part of the human leg between the knee and ankle.
• noun A corresponding part in other vertebrates.
• noun The whole leg of a human.
• noun A leg or leglike part.
• noun A cut of meat from the leg of a steer, calf, sheep, or lamb.
• noun The long narrow part of a nail or pin.
• noun A stem, stalk, or similar part.
• noun Nautical The stem of an anchor.
• noun The long shaft of a fishhook.
• noun The part of a tobacco pipe between the bowl and stem.
• noun The shaft of a key.
• noun The narrow section of the handle of a spoon.
• noun Printing The section of a body of type between the shoulder and the foot.
• noun The narrow part of the sole of a shoe under the instep.
• noun A piece of material, such as metal, that is used to reinforce or shape this part of a shoe.
• noun A projection, such as a ring, on the back of a button by which it is sewn to cloth.
• noun The part of a tool, such as a drill, that connects the functioning head to the handle.
• noun The latter or remaining part, especially of a period of time.
• noun The early or primary part of a period of time.
• transitive verb To hit (a golf ball) with the heel of the club, causing the ball to veer in the wrong direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The leg, or the part of the leg which extends from the knee to the ankle; the tibia or shin-bone.
• noun Technically, in anatomy and zoology, the shin, crus, or leg proper, between the knee and the ankle: the second segment of the hind limb, represented by the length of the tibia.
• noun In a horse, popularly, the part of the fore leg between the so-called knee and the fetlock, corresponding to the metacarpus. See cut under horse.
• noun In a bird, popularly, the part of the foot between where the feathers usually end and the roots of the toes, commonly held upright and appearing like a part of the leg, not of the foot, as it really is; the tarsometatarsus.
• noun In entomology, the tibia: same as shin
• noun In botany, the footstalk or pedicel of a flower.
• noun A stocking, or the part of a stocking which covers the leg; specifically, a stocking in the process of being knitted (a Scotch use); also, a legging or leg-covering.
• noun That part of an instrument, tool, or the like which connects the acting part, with a handle or the part by which it is held or moved, Specifically
• noun That part of a shoe which connects the broad part of the sole with the heel. See cut under boot.
• noun In metallurgy, a large ladle to contain molten metals, managed by a straight bar at one end and a cross-bar with handles at the other end, by which it is tipped to pour out the metal.
• noun The shaft of a mine.
• noun plural Flat pliers with jaws of soft iron used for nibbling glass for lenses preparatory to grinding. See nibbling.
• noun In arch.:
• noun The shaft of a column.
• noun The plain space between the grooves of the Doric triglyph.
• noun A kind of fur, mentioned as used for trimming outer garments in the sixteenth century, and as derived from the legs of animals.
• noun The latter end or part of anything.
• noun A shell: same as chank.
• To be affected with disease of the pedicel or footstalk; fall off by decay of the footstalk: often with off.
• To take to one's legs: frequently with an impersonal it: as, to shank it (that is, to make the journey on foot).
• To send off without ceremony.
• In the making of lenses, to break off (the rough edges) with pliers of soft iron.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) See chank.
• noun The part of the leg from the knee to the foot; the shin; the shin bone; also, the whole leg.