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junk

noun
/d͡ʒʌŋk/UK/d͡ʒɐŋk/

Etymology

From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to Middle English junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from Old French jonc, from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".

  1. derived from *d₂luuŋ✻ — “boat”
  2. derived from joṅ
  3. derived from ꦗꦺꦴꦁ
  4. derived from jong
  5. derived from جُنْك
  6. borrowed from jonk
  7. borrowed from junco

Definitions

  1. Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.

    • This shed is full of junk – will you help me sort it out?
    • She needs to find a better place to keep her junk [= belongings].
    • What a piece of junk!

  2. Material or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack…

    Material or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack commercial value.

    • junk food
    • junk fish; junk trees

  3. Nonsense

    Nonsense; gibberish.

    • The student put down junk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.
  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.

      • The poor fellow took so much junk into his system he could only weather the greater proportion of his day in that chair with the lamp burning at noon, but in the morning he was magnificent.
      • 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.
      • Ah love nothing (except junk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring).

    2. The genitalia, especially of a male.

      • I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk / Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk / Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk
      • Got a spot on the voice, I'm a neo punk / Old ladies cum when I flash my junk

    3. Salt beef.

      • My physician has ordered me three pounds of minced salt-junk at every meal .

    4. Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when…

      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.

    5. A fragment of any solid substance

      A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.

      • Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his, An' gives a good-sized junk to all
      • Then he lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid. “Cut me a junk o’ that,” says he, “for I haven’t no knife and hardly strength enough, so be as I had. […]”

    6. To throw away.

    7. To find something for very little money (meaning derived from the term junkshop)

      • (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."

    8. To consume junk food, mainly at a fast-food restaurant.

      • Let's just junk some burgers at McDonald's.
      • Let me go junking to KFC with you.

    9. A Chinese sailing vessel.

      • It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped something like a Chinese junk.

    10. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

antijunk, chartjunk, cyberjunk, dejunk, hunk of junk, Jesus junk, junkaholic, junkball, junk beverage, junkboard, junk bond, junk bottle, junkbox, junk conference, junk DNA, junk drawer, junk drink, junk email, junker, junk fee, junk food, junk food news, junk gun, junkhead, junk head, junkheap, junk-hook, junkie, junky, junk in one's trunk, junk in the trunk, junk job, junkless, junklike, junk mail, junk mailer, junkman, junkmobile, junk news, junkpile · +23 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for junk. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA