Banks refers to an institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs. It commonly describes a branch office of such an institution, an underwriter or controller of a card game; also banque, and a fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to the sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses, money; profit, and in certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Banks as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include a safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods, a device used to store coins or currency, an edge of river, lake, or other watercourse, an elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth (for example, a sandbank or mudbank), and a slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment, which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
