Shylock
/ˈʃaɪlɒk/
/ˈʃaɪlɑːk/
- a character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. He is a Jewish moneylender who demands a pound of flesh from somebody who cannot pay back the money that he borrowed. Although the play shows him as a person who is treated badly as well as a person who treats others badly, his name is sometimes used in a negative way to describe people who lend money at very high rates of interest.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
Shylock