bunk

Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: bŭngk, IPA: /bʌŋk/, SAMPA: /bVNk/

  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 bed placed in tiers.
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, informal) A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.

Derived terms

• bunk bed, bunkbed
• bunkmate

Translations

(nautical) built-in bed on board ship

Bulgarian: койка (bg) f. Finnish: punkka (fi) German: Koje (de) f.

Italian: cuccetta (it) f. Polish: koja (pl) f. Russian: койка (ru) f. Spanish: camarote (es) m.

(military) cot

Finnish: punkka (fi)

one of a series of berth in tiers

Finnish: punkka (fi)

Japanese: 寝台 (しんだい, shindai)

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 Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: giaciglio m.

Spanish: litera f.

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

Etymology 2

Shortened from bunkum, a variant of buncombe.

Noun

bunk (uncountable)

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

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:nonsense

Derived terms

• debunk

Translations

nonsense

Bulgarian: глупости (bg) pl., дрънканици (bg) pl.

Finnish: soopa (fi)

Etymology 3

Verb

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

1. (UK) To fail to attend school without permission; to play truant. (Usually as in, 'to bunk off')
2. (obsolete) To expel from a school.

Quotations

"Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", written by George Dibden Pitt in 1842 for the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, at Act 3, Scene 2:
JARVIS WILLIAMS (to the Keepers of a madhouse at Peckham): "Stand off you cowardly rascals, or I'll put the 'kiebosh' on the whole consarn."
JONAS: "The 'kiebosh'?"
JARVIS WILLIAMS: "Yes, it's a word of Greek extraction, signifying the upset of the apple-cart - so - bunk!"
JONAS: "Bunk?"
JARVIS WILLIAMS: "Yes, that's another Greek word, and means G.O., go."

Translations

to fail to attend school without permission

Bulgarian: бягам от училище (bg)

Finnish: lintsata (fi)

References

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