bunk

[buhngk]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bunk ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a built-in platform bed, as on a ship.

Informal. any bed.

a cabin used for sleeping quarters, as in a summer camp; bunkhouse.

a trough for feeding cattle.

verb (used without object)

Informal. to occupy a bunk or any sleeping quarters: Joe and Bill bunked together at camp.

verb (used with object)

to provide with a place to sleep.

Origin of bunk

First recorded in 1750–60; back formation from bunker

bunk

[buhngk]

noun Informal.

humbug; nonsense.

Origin of bunk

1895–1900, Americanism; short for bunkum

Synonyms for bunk

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bunk ON THESAURUS.COM

baloney, rot, hogwash, applesauce, bull, hooey.

bunk

[buhngk]

verb (used with or without object)

to bump.

Origin of bunk

perhaps expressive alteration of bump

bunk

⁴

[buhngk]British Slang.

verb (used with object)

to absent oneself from: to bunk a history class.

verb (used without object)

to run off or away; flee.

Idioms

do a bunk, to leave hastily, especially under suspicious circumstances; run away.

Origin of bunk

⁴

First recorded in 1865–70; perhaps special use of bunk¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for bunk

rubbish, baloney, cot, pallet, hogwash, garbage, claptrap, tomfoolery, jazz, bilge, hooey, piffle, flimflam, applesauce, poppycock, balderdash, trash, rot, tommyrot, twaddle

Examples from the Web for bunk

Contemporary Examples of bunk

Half of it is taken up by the bunk beds and improvised benches.
Here’s a Reform Even the Koch Brothers and George Soros Can Agree On
Tina Brown
November 10, 2014
Barba offered me a line of cocaine as we sat on his bunk bed covered by posters of musicians and half-naked women.
Cocaine, Politicians and Wives: Inside the World’s Most Bizarre Prison
Jason Batansky
October 12, 2014
At the prefab dorms on the American base in Kandahar, I ran into my neighbor from the bunk next door.
When I Met Robin Williams in Afghanistan
Matthew Kaminski
August 20, 2014
We spent our days and nights with the kids at the center, sleeping on bunk beds with thin mattresses.
China Doesn't Want You to See the Internet Addiction Film 'Web Junkie'
Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia
August 9, 2014
More than 40 of us crammed into each darkened bay lined with bunk beds.
How I’ll End the War: The Trip Over to Afghanistan
Nick Willard
April 23, 2014

Historical Examples of bunk

It was several weeks before I was allowed even to quit my bunk.
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
Leonard rubbed the stuff on his side and turned into his bunk.
The Cruise of the Dry Dock
T. S. Stribling
Caradoc lifted his head from the bunk and blinked at the two men in the door.
The Cruise of the Dry Dock
T. S. Stribling
I was shown his bunk below, and there I found I had guessed right.
The Harbor
Ernest Poole
She don't sail for an hour or two and I'll be asleep in my bunk long before.
The Harbor
Ernest Poole

British Dictionary definitions for bunk

bunk

noun

a narrow shelflike bed fixed along a wall

short for bunk bed

informal any place where one sleeps

verb

(intr often foll by down) to prepare to sleephe bunked down on the floor

(intr) to occupy a bunk or bed

(tr) to provide with a bunk or bed

Word Origin for bunk

C19: probably short for bunker

bunk

noun

informal short for bunkum (def. 1)

bunk

noun

a hurried departure, usually under suspicious circumstances (esp in the phrase do a bunk)

verb

(usually foll by off) to play truant from (school, work, etc)

Word Origin for bunk

C19: perhaps from bunk 1 (in the sense: to occupy a bunk, hence a hurried departure, as on a ship)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bunk

n.1

"sleeping berth," 1758, probably a shortened form of bunker (n.) in its sense "seat." Bunk-bed (n.) attested by 1869.

n.2

"nonsense," 1900, short for bunkum, phonetic spelling of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. The usual story (by 1841) of its origin is this: At the close of the protracted Missouri statehood debates, supposedly on Feb. 25, 1820, N.C. Representative Felix Walker (1753-1828) began what promised to be a "long, dull, irrelevant speech," and he resisted calls to cut it short by saying he was bound to say something that could appear in the newspapers in the home district and prove he was on the job. "I shall not be speaking to the House," he confessed, "but to Buncombe." Bunkum has been American English slang for "nonsense" since 1841 (from 1838 as generic for "a U.S. Representative's home district").

MR. WALKER, of North Carolina, rose then to address the Committee on the question [of Missouri statehood]; but the question was called for so clamorously and so perseveringly that Mr. W. could proceed no farther than to move that the committee rise. [Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 16th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1539]

"to sleep in a bunk," 1840, originally nautical, from bunk (n.1). Related: Bunked; bunking.