junk

See also: Junk, -junk, and -jünk

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: jŭngk, IPA^(key): /dʒʌŋk/
• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Etymology 1

From Middle English junke (“old cable, rope”), probably from Old French jonc (“rush”), from Latin iuncus (“rush”).

A box full of junk (2)

Noun

junk (uncountable)

1. Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.
   • 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.

2. A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
3. (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
   • 1961, William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine, 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.

4. (slang) Genitalia.
   • 2009, Kesha, Tik Tok

     I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk

     Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk

     Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

5. (nautical) Salt beef.
6. 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.
7. (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Lowell to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:trash

Derived terms

Terms derived from junk

• junkaholic
• junkball
• junk bond
• junk bottle
• junk conference
• junk DNA
• junk drawer
• junker
• junk food
• junkhead

• junkheap
• junk hook
• junkie, junky
• junk in the trunk
• junk job
• junkless
• junklike
• junk mail
• junkman
• junkpile

• junk ring
• junkroom
• junk science
• junkshop
• junk shot
• junk sick
• junk vat
• junk wad
• junkware
• junkyard

Translations

rubbish, waste

• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Danish: bras (da), ragelse (da), affald (da)
• Dutch: rommel (nl) m, rotzooi (nl) m, afval (nl) n, brol m (Flemish)
• Estonian: prügi, jäätmed, praht
• Finnish: romu (fi), roska (fi), jäte (fi)
• French: ordure (fr), déchets (fr)
• Georgian: ნაგავი (nagavi)
• German: Schrott (de) m, Müll (de) m, Abfall (de) m
• Greek: σκουπίδια (el) pl (skoupídia)
• Hebrew: אַלְטֶע זַאכֶן‏‎ m (álte zákhen)
• Hungarian: lom (hu)
• Icelandic: rusl (is) n, drasl n
• Italian: immondizia (it) f, rifiuti (it), spazzatura (it) f, pattume (it) m
• Khmer: ឡាប់សង (lap sɑɑŋ), របស់អេបចាយ (rɔbɑh eɛp caay)

• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: paraurehe
• Polish: śmieci pl
• Portuguese: lixo (pt) m
• Russian: хлам (ru) m (xlam), скрап (ru) m (skrap), му́сор (ru) m (músor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: отпад m, олупина f

  Roman: otpad (sh) m, olupina (sh) f

• Spanish: basura (es) f
• Swedish: skräp (sv) n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: གད་ཉིག (gad nyig), ཕུང་རྫས (phung rdzas)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

miscellaneous items of little value

• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: roina (fi), kama (fi)
• German: Kram (de) m, Kleinkruscht m, Ramsch (de) m, Krempel m
• Greek: παλιατσαρία (el) f (paliatsaría)
• Hungarian: kacat (hu)
• Icelandic: drasl n
• Italian: paccottaglia, ciarpame (it) m, cianfrusaglie, robaccia f
• Khmer: ឡាប់សង (lap sɑɑŋ), របស់អេបចាយ (rɔbɑh eɛp caay)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: krāmi m pl, grabasti m pl (dialectism)

• Maori: paraurehe
• Navajo: inchxǫ́ʼį́
• Persian: بنجل‏‎ (fa) (bonjol)
• Portuguese: porcaria (pt) f
• Russian: барахло́ (ru) n (baraxló), хлам (ru) m (xlam), ру́хлядь (ru) f (rúxljadʹ)
• Spanish: cachivache (es) m, trasto (es) m, cachureo (es) m (Chile), calache m (Nicaragua), chéchere m (Colombia, Panama, Western Venezuela), chunche (es) m (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua), coroto (es) m (Venezuela), tiliche (es) m (Mexico) (often used in pl)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: གད་ཉིག (gad nyig)
• Vietnamese: phế liệu

narcotic drug

• Dutch: spul (nl) n, gerief (nl) n
• Finnish: kama (fi)

• German: Stoff (de) m
• Greek: ναρκωτικό (el) n (narkotikó), (slang) πρέζα (el) f (préza)

slang: genitalia

• German: Eier (de) f, Krempel m, Nüsse (de) f, Klöten (de) f
• Italian: coglioni (it) m pl

• Russian: (male) хозяйство (ru) n (xozjajstvo)

Verb

junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)

1. (transitive) To throw away.
2. (transitive) To find something for very little money (meaning derived from the term junk shop)

   (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

• (throw away): bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away, throw out, toss, trash
• See also Wikisaurus:junk

Translations

throw away

• Danish: kassere, smide ud
• Dutch: weggooien (nl), wegwerpen (nl), wegsmijten (nl), dumpen (nl)
• Finnish: romuttaa (fi)

• Italian: rottamare (it)
• Russian: выбра́сывать (ru) impf (vybrásyvatʹ), вы́бросить (ru) pf (výbrositʹ)

Etymology 2

From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Javanese djong, variant of djung, from Old Javanese jong (“seagoing ship”).

Noun

junk (plural junks)

1. (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.

Translations

Chinese sailing vessel

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中國式帆船, 中国式帆船 (Zhōngguó shì fānchuán), 舟 (zh) (zhōu), 艚 (zh) (cáo)

• Czech: džunka f
• Danish: junke c
• Dutch: jonk (nl) f
• Esperanto: ĵonko
• Finnish: džonkki (fi)
• French: jonque (fr) f
• German: Dschunke (de) f
• Hungarian: dzsunka (hu)
• Icelandic: djúnka f, júnka f
• Irish: siunca (Síneach) m
• Japanese: ジャンク (janku)

• Malay: ajung, jong (ms)
• Navajo: binááʼádaałtsʼózí bitsin naaʼeeł
• Persian: جنگ‏‎ (fa) (jong)
• Polish: dżonka f
• Portuguese: junco (pt) m
• Russian: джо́нка (ru) f (džónka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: џонка f, џунка f

  Roman: džonka f, džunka (sh) f

• Slovak: džunka f
• Spanish: junco m
• Swedish: djonk (sv) c
• Vietnamese: ghe (vi)

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Plautdietsch

Adjective

junk (comparative jinja)

1. young