plank

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
plank/plaŋk/

▶noun

• 1 a long, thin flat piece of timber, used in building and flooring.

• 2 a fundamental part of a political or other programme.

• 3 Brit. informal a stupid person.

▶verb

• 1 make, provide, or cover with planks.

• 2 informal, chiefly N. Amer. & Irish set down forcefully or abruptly: he planked the glasses in front of him.

– phrases
walk the plank historical be forced by pirates to walk blindfold along a plank over the side of a ship to one's death in the sea.

– derivatives
planking noun.

– origin ME: from Old North. Fr. planke, from late L. planca ‘board’, fem. of plancus ‘flat-footed’.