bunk

See also: Bunk

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bŭngk, IPA(key): /bʌŋk/
  • Audio (Australia):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Etymology 1

Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish Scottish English bunker (“seat, bench”), the origin of which is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian (North Germanic); compare Old Swedish bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). Possibly related to bunch.

Noun

Bunk bed

bunk (plural bunks)

  1. One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers.
    Jane sleeps in the top bunk, and her little sister Lauren takes the bottom bunk.
    • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎[1]:
      The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]
  2. (nautical) A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other.
    • 1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 94:
      When the ship reached Melbourne two days later we collared a couple of cases of apples from the hold and hid them in our bunks.
  3. (military) A cot.
  4. (informal) A bed in a prison, worksite or similar location.
  5. (US) A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
  6. (US, dialect) A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
  8. (Singapore, military, by extension) A dormitory or bunkroom where soldiers sleep.
    Don’t leave your bunk unlocked.
    • 1993, Haresh Sharma, Off Centre, Ethos Books, →ISBN, Act 3, scene I, page 84, lines 26–27:
      Then, we can train in the bunk. Right, Vinod? We can train anywhere. Today you help the Armskote.
Derived terms
Translations
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Translations to be checked

Verb

bunk (third-person singular simple present bunks, present participle bunking, simple past and past participle bunked)

  1. (intransitive) To occupy a bunk.
    Due to bed shortages, Jeff and Paul had to bunk together.
  2. (transitive) To provide a bunk.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

    Shortened from bunkum, a variant of buncombe, from Buncombe County, North Carolina. See bunkum for more.

    Noun

    bunk (uncountable)

    1. (slang, dated) Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.
      Synonym: hokum
      What she said about me was total bunk. Don't believe a word.
      • 1927, Arthur Train, When Tutt Meets Tutt, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 47:
        “You can’t pull any bunk like that on us!” roared Quelch. “We’ve had enough of this flapdoodlery! Take your money, Mrs. Clinton, and sign the deed.”
    2. (obsolete) In early use often in the form the bunk. [1900-1927]
      • 1927 January 30, Randall Faye, 1:45 from the start, in Upstream, spoken by Eric Brasingham (Earle Foxe), Fox Film Corporation:
        This knife-throwing act is the bunk
    3. (slang) A specimen of a recreational drug with insufficient active ingredient.
      • 2020 July 18, Rio Da Yung OG, featured by T LB$, “Toledo 2 Flint”, in The World is Yours‎[2], 1:26–1:28:
        I still can get off with a pound of bunk and pretend it's some Runtz

    Adjective

    bunk (not comparable)

    1. (slang) Defective, broken, not functioning properly.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Etymology 3

    19th century, of uncertain origin; perhaps from previous "to occupy a bunk" meaning, with connotations of a hurried departure, as if on a ship.

    Verb

    bunk (third-person singular simple present bunks, present participle bunking, simple past and past participle bunked)

    1. (UK, India, slang) To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually 'to bunk off').
      The naughty boys decided to bunk school and visit the comic shop.
    2. (UK, dated, slang) To expel from a school.
    3. (slang) To depart; scram.
      • 1907, Edith Nesbit, The Enchanted Castle:
        "They're moving off," he said. " […] [T]he funny little man with the beard like a goat is going a different way from everyone else — the gardeners will have to head him off. I don't see Mademoiselle, though. The rest of you had better bunk. […] "
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Noun

    bunk (plural bunks)

    1. (slang) A hasty departure.
      • 1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London:
        You may well say chance it, lad. From what I see and what I hear it seems to be getting a pretty near thing which side touches down first, but the old geezer's dead set on going through whatever turns up, and God knows that if it comes to a general bunk he's bound to be the hindmost.

    References

    Anagrams

    Yola

    Etymology

    Probably onomatopoeic or perhaps related to Middle English *bumpe (“bump”), perhaps via a diminutive *bunke, *bumpke.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /bʊŋk/

    Noun

    bunk

    1. A light blow from an animal's head.

    References

    • Kathleen A. Browne (1927), “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎[3], volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 136
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