junk
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
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".

Noun[edit]
junk (uncountable)
- Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash, garbage.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trash
- 1977, George Lucas, Star Wars: A New Hope, spoken by Luke Skywalker:
- What a piece of junk!
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist[1], 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.
- A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
- (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
- 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1966 [1961], William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy), New York: Grove Press, 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.
- 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 21:
- Ah love nothing (except junk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring).
- (slang) The genitalia, especially of a male.
- 2019 April 18, Genny Glassman, “Parent Torn After Discovering 5-Year-Old Neighbor 'Flashed' Kids & Told Them to Keep It a Secret”, in CafeMom[2]:
- But what to do about a kid who flashes his privates at your child? And worse, how do you make sure your kid does not reciprocate? That's exactly the dilemma one mom faced when she learned that her 5-year-old neighbor had flashed his "junk" at her two sons and then made them swear not to tell.
- 2023, “Neo Punk”, in Every Loser, performed by Iggy Pop:
- Got a spot on the voice, I'm a neo punk / Old ladies cum when I flash my junk
- (nautical) Salt beef.
- c. 1851-1852, James Russell Lowell, Leaves from My Journal in Italy and Elsewhere:
- My physician has ordered me three pounds of minced salt-junk at every meal .
- c. 1851-1852, James Russell Lowell, Leaves from My Journal in Italy and Elsewhere:
- 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.
- (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
- 1846-1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:
- Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his,
An' gives a good-sized junk to all
- (attributive) Material or resources of a kind lacking commercial value.
- junk fish
- junk trees
- Nonsense; gibberish.
- The student put down junk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.
Derived terms[edit]
- hunk of junk
- Jesus junk
- junkaholic
- junkball
- junk bond
- junk bottle
- junk conference
- junk DNA
- junk drawer
- junker
- junk food → junk food news
- junk gun
- junkhead
- junkheap
- junk hook
- junkie, junky
- junk in the trunk
- junk job
- junkless
- junklike
- junk mail
- junkman
- junk news
- junkpile
- junk rig
- junk ring
- junkroom
- junk science
- junkshop
- junk shot
- junk sick, junk-sick
- junk sport
- junk time
- junk vat
- junk wad
- junkware
- junkyard
- piece of junk
- salt junk
- space junk
Translations[edit]
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Verb[edit]
junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)
- (transitive, informal) To throw away.
- (transitive, informal) 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."
Synonyms[edit]
- (throw away): bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away, throw out, toss, trash
- See also Thesaurus:junk
Translations[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]

From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Arabic جُنْك (junk), from Malay or Javanese djong, variant of djung, from Old Javanese jong (“seagoing ship”).
Noun[edit]
junk (plural junks)
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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References[edit]
Bavarian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung.
Adjective[edit]
junk
References[edit]
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Cimbrian[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung.
Adjective[edit]
junk
References[edit]
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
junk
- Alternative form of jonk
North Frisian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old Frisian diunk, from Proto-Germanic *dinkwaz, variant of *dankwaz (“dark”). Compare with German dunkel.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
junk
Plautdietsch[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle Low German and Old Saxon jung.
Adjective[edit]
junk (comparative jinja)
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌŋk
- Rhymes:English/ʌŋk/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- en:Nautical
- English dated terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English informal terms
- English terms borrowed from Portuguese
- English terms derived from Portuguese
- English terms borrowed from Dutch
- English terms derived from Dutch
- English terms derived from Arabic
- English terms derived from Malay
- English terms derived from Javanese
- English terms derived from Old Javanese
- English countable nouns
- en:Ultimate
- en:Watercraft
- Bavarian terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Bavarian terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Bavarian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Bavarian terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Bavarian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Bavarian terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Bavarian terms inherited from Middle High German
- Bavarian terms derived from Middle High German
- Bavarian terms inherited from Old High German
- Bavarian terms derived from Old High German
- Bavarian lemmas
- Bavarian adjectives
- Sappada Bavarian
- Cimbrian terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Cimbrian terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Cimbrian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Cimbrian terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Cimbrian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Cimbrian terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Cimbrian terms inherited from Middle High German
- Cimbrian terms derived from Middle High German
- Cimbrian terms inherited from Old High German
- Cimbrian terms derived from Old High German
- Cimbrian lemmas
- Cimbrian adjectives
- Tredici Comuni Cimbrian
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- North Frisian terms inherited from Old Frisian
- North Frisian terms derived from Old Frisian
- North Frisian terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- North Frisian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- North Frisian terms with IPA pronunciation
- North Frisian lemmas
- North Frisian adjectives
- Sylt North Frisian
- Plautdietsch terms inherited from Middle Low German
- Plautdietsch terms derived from Middle Low German
- Plautdietsch terms inherited from Old Saxon
- Plautdietsch terms derived from Old Saxon
- Plautdietsch lemmas
- Plautdietsch adjectives
- Plautdietsch 1-syllable words