junket

Etymology

Unknown

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒʌŋkɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋkɪt

Noun

junket (plural junkets)

1. (obsolete) A basket.
2. A type of cream cheese, originally made in a rush basket; later, a food made of sweetened curds or rennet.
   • 1818, John Keats, "Where be ye going, you Devon maid?":

     I love your meads, and I love your flowers, / And I love your junkets mainly [...].

3. (obsolete) A delicacy.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.4:

     Goe streight, and take with thee to witnesse it / Sixe of thy fellowes of the best array, / And beare with you both wine and juncates fit, / And bid him eate […].

4. A feast or banquet.
   • 1790, Ambrose Philips, The free-thinker, Vol III. No 124., page 95

     Conversation is the natural Junket of the Mind ; and most Men have an Appetite to it, once in the day at least [...].

5. A pleasure-trip; a journey made for feasting or enjoyment, now especially a trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment.
6. A press junket.
   • 2018, An Phung and Chloe Melas,"Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment", CNN entertainment, May 24, 2018

     An entertainment reporter who is a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said Freeman made comments about her skirt and her legs during two different junkets.

7. (gambling) 20-40 table gaming rooms for which the capacity and limits change daily. Junket rooms are often rented out to private vendors who run tour groups through them and give a portion of the proceeds to the main casino.

Verb

junket (third-person singular simple present junkets, present participle junketing or junketting, simple past and past participle junketed or junketted)

1. (intransitive) To go on or attend a junket.
   • South

     Job's children junketed and feasted together often.

2. (transitive) To regale or entertain with a feast.