Definition of "shylock" []

• A ruthless moneylender; a loan shark. (noun)
• To lend money at exorbitant interest rates. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "State law uses "shylock" in a statute dealing with loan sharks, language that is "offensive to the Jewish people," said state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Democrat."
• "If you're like me, you'd rather work with your customers than play shylock, but at some point enough is enough."
• "In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," a script that was a produced episode of the second incarnation of the Twilight Zone television show, a low-rent petty crook and shylock, Arky Lochner, makes an ill-advised deal with the Devil—well, a demon, at least, and his time is about to run out."