bunk

See also: Bunk

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish English bunker (“seat, bench”), origin is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian. Confer Old Swedish bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). See also boarding, flooring and confer bunch.

Noun

bunk (plural bunks)

  1. One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers.
    • 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, […]
  2. (nautical) A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other.
  3. (military) A cot.
  4. (US) A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
  5. (US, dialect) A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

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

  1. To occupy a bunk.
  2. To provide a bunk.
Translations

Etymology 2

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

Noun

bunk (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.

Adjective

bunk (not comparable)

  1. (slang) defective, broken, not functioning properly
Synonyms
  • See also 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. (Britain) To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually as in 'to bunk off').
  2. (dated) To expel from a school.
    • 1945, Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
      She was bunked from the convent last term. I don't quite know what for.
Translations

References

  • “bunk” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
  • bunk in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

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