quonk

English
WOTD – 13 December 2011

Etymology

Imitative.

Noun

quonk (uncountable)

  1. Unwanted noise picked up by a microphone in a broadcasting studio.
  2. Audience chatter that disturbs the performer.

Verb

quonk (third-person singular simple present quonks, present participle quonking, simple past and past participle quonked)

  1. (intransitive) To produce unwanted noise.
    • 2004, Alastair Scott, Stuffed Lives
      The microphone quonked, caused the speakers to emit an electronic belch which looped and reverberated […]
  2. (intransitive) To honk.
    • 1902, Cooper Ornithological Society, The Condor
      As we pushed among the reeds in the swamp, the grebes could be heard quonking in the buckbrush or beyond it.
    • 1999, Ronald Rompkey, Eliot Curwen, Labrador Odyssey
      […] no goose was heard there, but lower down we heard some "quonking," […]
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