clunk

American  

[kluhngk] / klʌŋk /

verb (used with or without object)

1. to hit hard, especially on the head.

2. clonk.

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noun

1. a hard hit, especially on the head.

2. Informal. a stupid person; clunkhead.

3. clonk.

4. Informal. clunker

clunk British  

/ klʌŋk /

noun

1. a blow or the sound of a blow

2. a dull metallic sound

3. a dull or stupid person

4. 1. the gurgling sound of a liquid

   2. the sound of a cork being removed from a bottle

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verb

1. to make or cause to make such a sound

Etymology

Origin of clunk

1790–1800; imitative; cf. clink ¹, clank

Example Sentences

They build a tower and there’s not really much talk of heritage or relationship; it’s just Clunk!

From New York Times • Jul. 15, 2023

A BBC producer told me that in all the years she worked alongside him at Clunk Clink, Jim'll Fix It and Top of the Pops, she never saw anything that caused her concern.

From BBC • Sep. 30, 2016

On several occasions, girls from Duncroft were bussed to London to appear on Savile's Saturday night variety show, Clunk Click, filmed at BBC Television Centre.

From The Guardian • Dec. 9, 2012

Josh Clunk, London criminal lawyer, who chants revival hymns while plotting legal deviltries, saves a client and clears up, in his own oblique style, four mysterious deaths in a corrupt English seaside town.

From Time Magazine Archive

Clunk, klungk, n. the sound of a liquid coming out of a bottle when the cork has been quickly drawn.—v.i. to make such a sound.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various