bunk
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Bunk
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish English bunker (“seat, bench”), origin is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian. Compare Old Swedish bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). See also boarding, flooring and compare bunch.
Noun
bunk (plural bunks)
- 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:
- 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, […]
- (nautical) A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other.
- (military) A cot.
- (US) A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
- (US, dialect) A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
Derived terms
Translations
one of a series of berth in tiers
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built-in bed on board a ship
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
bunk (third-person singular simple present bunks, present participle bunking, simple past and past participle bunked)
Derived terms
Translations
to occupy a bunk
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Etymology 2
Shortened from bunkum, a variant of buncombe, from Buncombe County, North Carolina. See bunkum for more.
Noun
bunk (uncountable)
- (slang) Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.
- 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.”
- (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
- (slang) A specimen of a recreational drug with insufficient active ingredient.
Adjective
bunk (not comparable)
- (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)
- (British, India) To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually as in 'to bunk off').
- The naughty boys decided to bunk school and visit the comic shop.
- (dated) To expel from a school.
- 1945, Evelyn Waugh, chapter 4, in Brideshead Revisited […], 3rd edition, London: Chapman & Hall, →OCLC, book 1 (Et in Arcadia Ego), pages 83–84:
- She was bunked from the convent last term. I don't quite know what for.
- (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
to fail to attend school without permission
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References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bunk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
- “bunk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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Etymology
Probably onomatopoeic or perhaps related to Middle English *bumpe (“bump”), perhaps via a diminutive *bunke, *bumpke.
Pronunciation
Noun
bunk
- A light blow from an animal's head.
References
- Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 136
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