World Bankn.
/wəːld ˈbaŋk/, U.S. /ˌwər(ə)ld ˈbæŋk/ An international banking organization, esp. one established to control the distribution of economic aid between member nations; spec. †(a) (the former name for) the Bank for International Settlements, established through the League of Nations at Basle in 1930 (obsolete); (b) (the name for) an international banking organization with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., formally established in 1945 as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and subsequently incorporating the International Development Association (created in 1960).The original function of the World Bank (sense (b)) was the distribution of funding for post-war reconstruction. The Bank's objective has subsequently broadened to include the reduction of poverty and the improvement of living standards through out the world.
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World Bank1910
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > banking > [noun] > bank > World Bank > World Bank (League of Nations)
World Bank1930
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > banking > [noun] > bank > World Bank > World Bank (United Nations)
World Bank1944
1910 F. K. Lane Let. Mar. (1922) 74 I have thought of a lecture to-day and you must keep this letter as a reminder and make me do it one of these days:..‘The Need of a World Bank: International and Independent Financial Authority.’
1921 Anniston (Alabama) Star 13 Aug. 1/3 Self-financing, through interest profits, of the world bank and the association of nations.
1930 Business Week 28 May 9/2 French shares for the World Bank were offered publicly this week.
1943 N.Y. Times 5 Apr. 6/3 Senator Elmer Thomas said..that the establishment of a world bank founded on a standard international coin was inevitable.
1944 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch 23 July 6 a/3 (heading) Russia agrees to boost quota in World Bank.
1962 R. F. Mikesell U.S. Private & Govt. Investm. Abroad ix. 236 Joint operations with the World Bank involving public offerings of bonds in the U.S. private capital market totalled $236 million.
1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xi. 47 The statistical boys..had worked out all the flaws in the World Bank report.
1980 J. Rifkin Entropy vi. 189 Fully 800 million human beings are barely surviving in what the World Bank calls ‘absolute poverty’.
2005 Press Trust India (Nexis) 17 Jan. Pakistan Monday said it had a ‘solid case’ in its favour if the issue is put to neutral abjudication by the World Bank.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1910