Meaning & use
loan shark
A person who lends money at extremely high, often illegal interest rates, sometimes using threats to enforce repayment.
See it in a sentence
Desperate for cash, he borrowed from a loan shark who charged him triple the legal interest rate.
The loan shark threatened her when she missed a payment on the money she had borrowed.
A note on using this word
Loan shark is informal and carries a strongly negative, often illegal connotation, unlike a bank or licensed lender.
Words with a similar meaning
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