Wiktionary
n. Someone who lends money at exorbitant rates of interest. vb. (alternative spelling of loanshark English)
WordNet
n. someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest [syn: usurer, moneylender, shylock]
Wikipedia
A loan shark is a person or body who offers loans at extremely high interest rates. The term usually refers to illegal activity, but may also refer to predatory lending with extremely high interest rates such as payday or title loans. Loan sharks sometimes enforce repayment by blackmail or threats of violence. Historically, many moneylenders skirted between legal and extralegal activity. In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a feature of the criminal underworld.
Loan Shark is a 1952 film noir directed by Seymour Friedman and starring George Raft, Dorothy Hart and Paul Stewart.
A loan shark loans money at high interest.
Loan shark and Loanshark may also refer to:
- Loan Shark (film), 1952 film
- Loanshark (film), 1999 film
- Loanshark Blues, a song from the Rory Gallagher album Defender
Usage examples of "loan shark".
He gets me to tell him about this movie guy I know, Sid Kabikoff, whos interested in seeing this loan shark named Sal DOnofrio, whos gonna shoot him up to Momo for a Pension Fund loan.
DuPage just eyed me, a tiger shark's stare from a loan shark's muscle.
Orly heard this first-hand from the only genuine Mafioso he'd ever met, a loan shark on trial for breaking the thumbs of a delinquent Chrysler salesman.
During a recess he approached the loan shark and struck up a friendly conversation.
When Orly asked if the loan shark knew anyone in the market for a nude dance club, the man frowned and said no fucking way, there's too much heat.