junk

See also: Junk, -junk, and -jünk

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: jŭngk, IPA(key): /dʒʌŋk/
  • Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Etymology 1

From Middle English junke (old cable, rope), probably from Old French jonc (rush), from Latin iuncus (rush)[1].

A box full of junk (2)

Noun

junk (uncountable)

  1. Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
  2. A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
  3. (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
    • 1961, William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine, page 7
      Trace a line of goose pimples up the thin young arm. Slide the needle in and push the bulb watching the junk hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suck junk through all the hungry young cells.
  4. (slang) The clothed genitalia.
    • 2009, Kesha, Tik Tok
      I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
      Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk
      Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk
  5. (nautical) Salt beef.
  6. Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.
  7. (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Lowell to this entry?)
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)

  1. (transitive) To throw away.
  2. (transitive) To find something for very little money (meaning derived from the term junk shop)
    (On Facebook, a record collector wrote:) "The newest addition to my Annette Hanshaw collection, I junked this beautiful flawless E-copy within walking distance from my house."
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Javanese djong, variant of djung, from Old Javanese jong (seagoing ship).

Noun

junk (plural junks)

  1. (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.
Translations

References

  1. junk” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

Bavarian

Etymology

From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁n̥ḱós.

Adjective

junk

  1. (Sappada) young

References

  • “junk” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁n̥ḱós.

Adjective

junk

  1. (Thirteen Communities) young

References

  • “junk” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

North Frisian

Etymology

Compare with German dunkel.

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /jʊŋk/

Adjective

junk

  1. (Sylt) dark

Plautdietsch

Adjective

junk (comparative jinja)

  1. young
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