Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - anchor

 I. noun  Usage: often attributive  Etymology: Middle English ancre, from Old English ancor, from Latin ~a, from Greek ankyra; akin to Old English anga hook — more at angle  Date: before 12th century  1. a device usually of metal attached to a ship or boat by a cable and cast overboard to hold it in a particular place by means of a fluke that digs into the bottom  2. a reliable or principal support ; mainstay  3. something that serves to hold an object firmly  4. an object shaped like a ship's ~  5. an ~man or ~woman  6. the member of a team (as a relay team) that competes last  7. a large business (as a department store) that attracts customers and other businesses to a shopping center or mall  8. a fixed object (as a tree or a piton) to which a climber's rope is secured  • ~less adjective  II. verb  (~ed; ~ing)  Date: 13th century  transitive verb  1. to hold in place in the water by an ~ ~ a ship  2. to secure firmly ; fix ~ a post in concrete  3. to act or serve as an ~ for it is she who is ~ing the rebuilding campaign — G. D. Boone ~ing the evening news  intransitive verb  1. to cast ~  2. to become fixed