bunk1
- 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.
- Informal. to occupy a bunk or any sleeping quarters: Joe and Bill bunked together at camp.
- to provide with a place to sleep.
Origin of bunk1
bunk3
- to bump.
Origin of bunk3
bunk4
- to absent oneself from: to bunk a history class.
- to run off or away; flee.
- do a bunk, to leave hastily, especially under suspicious circumstances; run away.
Origin of bunk4
Related Words
residelocatesettlecrashoccupyabidefoolliemisinformenticecheathoodwinkdupebetraydeceivetemptmisrepresentfudgedefrauddeludeExamples from the Web for bunking
Historical Examples
Not that I blame you for bunking,—Stuart smiled—the strain was intolerable.
Twos and ThreesG. B. Stern
Other officers are requested not to escape, and will be surely shot in bunking.
The Secrets of a KuttiteEdward O. Mousley
Not Langford,he was bunking with his friend in that same room.
Langford of the Three BarsKate Boyles
Matt was reduced to the ignominy of returning to the hotel and bunking there.
Adventures in SwazilandOwen Rowe O'Neil
Well, Felix, the Mexican herder, told me some Navajos had been bunking here.
The Call of the CanyonZane Grey
bunk1
- a narrow shelflike bed fixed along a wall
- short for bunk bed
- informal any place where one sleeps
- (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
bunk2
- informal short for bunkum (def. 1)
bunk3
- a hurried departure, usually under suspicious circumstances (esp in the phrase do a bunk)
- (usually foll by off) to play truant from (school, work, etc)
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for bunking
bunk
n.1
"sleeping berth," 1758, probably a shortened form of bunker (n.) in its sense "seat." Bunk-bed (n.) attested by 1869.
bunk
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]
bunk
v.
"to sleep in a bunk," 1840, originally nautical, from bunk (n.1). Related: Bunked; bunking.