dank
Americanadjective
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unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly.
a dank cellar.
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Slang. (of marijuana) excellent; high quality.
There was plenty of booze and dank weed at the party.
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Slang. (of an internet meme) passé or clichéd; out of touch; having missed the cultural Zeitgeist.
noun
adjective
Usage
What else does dank mean? When not describing something as "moist" and "humid" like a basement, dank is a slang term describing something as "excellent," especially marijuana.Dank can also refer to memes that are played out or extremely weird.
Other Word Forms
- dankly adverb
- dankness noun
Etymology
Origin of dank
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English probably from Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish dänka, Norwegian dynke “to moisten,” cognate with Old Norse dǫkk “water hole”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The bounding wolf flew past her and knocked her flat on her back, with a whoosh of hot wolf breath and dank fur smell.
From Literature
As far as she knew, the wise old founder had never had to flee actors dressed as pirates by crawling through a dank, dark tunnel into the British Museum after hours.
From Literature
Mystified, he wanders the dank halls of their rented palazzo and the fetid alleyways of the “pestilential city” where canal waters slither past like “a fat, grey-green worm.”
More time spent scrolling dank memes and reels on social media or bingeing the “King of the Hill” reboot on Hulu means less time for the latest pick from Oprah’s Book Club.
From Los Angeles Times
A dank, earthy odor hung in the air, as if mounds of fresh pencil shavings had been scattered over a newly excavated farm plot.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
