How to Use loan shark in a Sentence

loan shark

noun
Definition of loan sharknext
  • Word on the street was that the owner got in over his head to a local loan shark and fled town.
    — Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2019
  • When times get tough, Levi asks for help from a ruthless loan shark.
    — Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 27 Dec. 2022
  • The twins learn that their grandpa is being hunted by a loan shark.
    — Shelby Stewart, Essence, 22 Dec. 2023
  • Three Irish wiseguys, looking to go on their own as loan sharks, need cash to get started.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Uncut Gems is a plunge into a gritty city of grifters and loan sharks.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 11 Dec. 2019
  • Woo plays a promising boxer whose mother is in debt to a loan shark.
    — Joan MacDonald, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2022
  • Elisha Cuthbert co-stars as his wife and Mel Gibson is a shady loan shark.
    — Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 22 Sep. 2022
  • Based on a Naver webtoon of the same name, this action thriller revolves around two young boxers who enter the world of loan sharks.
    — Time, 14 June 2023
  • Black people were blocked from the banking system whites take for granted, and forced to turn to payday loan sharks.
    — John Archibald | [email protected], al, 29 May 2020
  • What kind of predatory loan shark of a dealer—25 percent every day?
    — Anne Branigin, The Root, 6 Feb. 2018
  • Only a loan shark would dream of risking a dime on Ryan, as Keith would instantly have known.
    — New York Times, 2 May 2022
  • That father became the bottom layer of Rocky Balboa: the fact that Rocky worked for a loan shark and broke people’s arms for a living.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Sep. 2023
  • Bifield and the Angels were accused of acting as collection agents for Mafia loan sharks.
    — Edmund H. Mahony, courant.com, 8 Oct. 2019
  • Uncle Sam isn't cutting taxes, just taking on a quirky role as a loan shark who fronts you the money but expects to get paid back soon.
    — Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 11 Sep. 2020
  • Their old castmate Monterrey Jack has crossed the wrong loan shark, and Chip and Dale decide to bury their decades-old feud to do some rescuing and rangering.
    — Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 20 May 2022
  • Recently, one of my patients borrowed money from a loan shark just to get a private taxi to the hospital.
    — Zolelwa Sifumba, Scientific American, 4 Sep. 2020
  • When the handover goes terribly wrong, Budge finds himself in a race against the clock to get a hold of his missing product and find a new buyer before the loan shark tracks him down.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 4 Nov. 2021
  • When the loan shark ends up dead and a witness spotted someone in Eva’s checkered coat leaving the scene of the crime, Jessica has to prove her friend’s innocence.
    — Emma Rubin, Vulture, 21 June 2021
  • The owner of a popular barbershop considers selling the place to a loan shark who wants to convert it into a strip club.
    — Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2019
  • Meanwhile, the loan shark in Caracas is pressuring Mr. Milano.
    — Andrew Silverstein, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2023
  • Because of these limits, banks kept interest rates between 6 and 12 percent and didn’t do much business with the poor, who in a pinch took their valuables to the pawnbroker or the loan shark.
    — Matthew Desmond, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Howard’s plan is to sell off the opal immediately to get a loan shark—played, with menacing oiliness, by Eric Bogosian—off his tail.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 13 Dec. 2019
  • There have been whispers of loan sharks and mafia connections and Continent -wide arrest warrants.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Then as now, people hunkered over the soil and used their hands, earning too little to feed their families, forcing many households to borrow from loan sharks.
    — Peter S. Goodman Jes Aznar, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2023
  • In recent years, a series of reports emerged about loan sharks who forced female students to send nude selfies as collateral.
    — Jane Li, Quartz, 23 Sep. 2019
  • Activists claim gangs prey on the high unemployment rate among young Arab-Israeli men, acting as loan sharks, and force shop keepers and others to pay protection fees.
    — Hadas Gold, CNN, 8 Sep. 2023
  • His own publicist claimed the boxer worked a side job as a bill collector (i.e., leg breaker) for a Las Vegas loan shark operation.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 5 June 2022
  • Enslaved by a loan shark, a violent fighter escapes and meets a blind man who teaches him humanity.
    — Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2019
  • Later, a loan shark named Sykes plots a kidnapping, which the animals dramatically try to foil.
    — Dewayne Bevil, orlandosentinel.com, 2 Oct. 2020
  • Despite starting off as opponents, the two end up working together in a quest to exact justice against rich and powerful loan sharks.
    — Time, 14 June 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'loan shark.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: