Real Dictionary

anchor
countable noun: An anchor is a heavy hooked object that is dropped from a boat into the water at the end of a chain in order to make the boat stay in one place.
verb: When a boat anchors or when you anchor it, its anchor is dropped into the water in order to make it stay in one place.

anchor in American English
a heavy object, usually a shaped iron weight with flukes, lowered by cable or chain to the bottom of a body of water to keep a vessel from drifting
designating the final leg, or stage, of a relay race
to keep from drifting, giving way, etc., by or as by an anchor
to lower the anchor overboard so as to keep from drifting
noun: any of various devices dropped by a chain, cable, or rope to the bottom of a body of water for preventing or restricting the motion of a vessel or other floating object, typically having broad, hooklike arms that bury themselves in the bottom to provide a

anchor in British English
noun: any of several devices, usually of steel, attached to a vessel by a cable and dropped overboard so as to grip the bottom and restrict the vessel's movement