zonk

See also: Zonk

English

Etymology

First attested around 1950. Unknown origin, likely imitative, of echoic origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zɒŋk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋk

Noun

zonk (plural zonks)

1. (slang) An unfavorable card or token, or undesirable or worthless item used as a prize in a contest or game show (such as Let's Make a Deal).
   • 2003-10-1, Gregory Arthur Baer Life: The Odds (And How to Improve Them), Penguin, →ISBN, page 237

     There will always be two doors that hold zonks, so regardless of whether you initially chose the grand prize or a zonk, Monty will always be able to show you a zonk not chosen.

   • 2003-12-30, Jerrilyn Farmer, Mumbo Gumbo: A Madeline Bean Novel, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 204:

     A live, mane-embellished, SAG-card-carrying lion, I should point out, who was likely being staged for a few minutes off to the side before he would be used as a freaking “Zonk!” on a freaking game show, for crying out loud.

   • 2004, Jay Mechling, On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 124

     A zonk was way overdue, yet the boys knew that the Seniors knew they would think this was a zonk and would trick the boys by making this another real prize.

   • 2004, Timothy V. Rasinski, Nancy Padak, Effective reading strategies: teaching children who find reading difficult, Pearson/Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 150

     I have three empty coffee cans, two with prizes and one with a slip of paper that says "Zonk."

   • 2006-05-09, Bruce Frey, Statistics hacks, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 208:

     Avoid the Zonk / On the TV show Let's Make a Deal, contestants often had to choose between three curtains.

   • 2008, Max H. Bazerman, Don A. Moore, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 53:

     Once a contestant picked a door, Monty would often open one of the other two doors to reveal a zonk, […]

   • 2009, Victor Shoup, A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 217:

     Behind two doors is a “zonk,” that is, something amusing but of little or no value, such as a goat, […]

2. (slang) The feeling of a drug taking hold.
3. (slang) A cigarette hand-rolled from tobacco and cannabis.

Translations

unfavorable card or token

• Bulgarian: черен Петър m (čeren Petǎr)
• Czech: plíva (cs) f
• Dutch: schijtkaart f (Flemish, colloquial)
• German: Zonk m, Niete (de) f, Trostpreis (de) m, Arschkarte (de) f, Schwarzer Peter m
• Hungarian: Lucifer (hu)
• Swedish: svarte petter

feeling of a drug taking hold

Verb

zonk (third-person singular simple present zonks, present participle zonking, simple past and past participle zonked)

1. (transitive, slang) To hit hard [1950].
2. (transitive, slang) To make (someone) sleepy or delirious, to put into a stupor [1968].
3. (intransitive, slang, usually followed by “out”) To become exhausted, sleepy or delirious.

   After two hours of studying, I zonked out.

Derived terms

• zonk out
• zonked

Translations

make sleepy or delirious

• German: schläfrig machen, müde machen

become exhausted

• German: müde werden, wegtreten (de), schläfrig werden, schlapp werden
• Russian: устать (ru) (ustatʹ)

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “zonk v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

• Konz

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔŋk

Verb

zonk

1. singular past indicative of zinken

Polish

Etymology

From the name of the mascot in the form of a cat in the bag, which served as a worthless prize in Idź na całość, the Polish version of the game show Let's Make a Deal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɔŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔŋk
• Syllabification: zonk

Noun

zonk m animal

1. (colloquial) bummer (disappointment)

Declension

Declension of zonk

	singular	plural
nominative	zonk	zonki
genitive	zonka	zonków
dative	zonkowi	zonkom
accusative	zonka	zonki
instrumental	zonkiem	zonkami
locative	zonku	zonkach
vocative	zonku	zonki

Further reading

• zonk in Polish dictionaries at PWN