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• funk
  funk

  noun

  cowering fear; state of great fright or terror.
• Funk
  Funk

  noun

  Casimir 1884–1967, U.S. biochemist, born in Poland: discovered thiamine, the first vitamin isolated.

funk

¹ American  

[fuhngk] / fʌŋk /

noun

1. cowering fear; state of great fright or terror.

2. a dejected mood.

   He's been in a funk ever since she walked out on him.

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verb (used with object)

• funks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• funked,
  past participle,  past
• funking
  present participle

1. British. to shrink from; try to shirk.

   We can only say that the government has funked its responsibility.

verb (used without object)

• funks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• funked,
  past participle,  past
• funking
  present participle

1. British. to shrink or quail in fear.

   He funked at nothing, and could lick every boy in the neighborhood.

funk ² American  

[fuhngk] / fʌŋk /

noun

1. Jazz. music having a funky quality.

   Let's set aside our music exercises for now and get down to some real funk.

2. a strong, earthy smell; stench.

   That is some serious funk coming from the compost pile.

3. the state or quality of being funky.

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Funk ³ American  

[foongk, fuhngk] / fʊŋk, fʌŋk /

noun

1. Casimir 1884–1967, U.S. biochemist, born in Poland: discovered thiamine, the first vitamin isolated.

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Funk ¹ British  

/ fʌŋk /

noun

1. Casimir (ˈkæzɪˌmɪə). 1884–1967, US biochemist, born in Poland: studied and named vitamins

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funk ² British  

/ fʌŋk /

noun

1. Also called: blue funk. a state of nervousness, fear, or depression (esp in the phrase in a funk )

2. a coward

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verb

1. to flinch from (responsibility) through fear

2. (tr; usually passive) to make afraid

funk ³ British  

/ fʌŋk /

noun

1. informal a type of polyrhythmic Black dance music with heavy syncopation

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funk ⁴ British  

/ fʌŋk /

noun

1. slang a strong foul odour

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Funk Scientific  

/ fŭngk,fo̅o̅ngk /

1. Polish-born American biochemist who is credited with the discovery of vitamins. In 1912 he postulated the existence of four organic bases he called vitamines which were necessary for normal health and the prevention of deficiency diseases. He also contributed to the knowledge of the hormones of the pituitary gland and the sex glands.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• funker
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• funking
  present
• funked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• funk
  simple
• funks
  simple
• have funked
  perfect
• has funked
  perfect
• am funking
  progressive
• are funking
  progressive
• is funking
  progressive
• have been funking
  perfect progressive
• has been funking
  perfect progressive

Past

• funked
  simple
• had funked
  perfect
• was funking
  progressive
• were funking
  progressive
• had been funking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will funk
  simple
• will have funked
  perfect
• will be funking
  progressive
• will have been funking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of funk¹

First recorded in 1735–45; originally Oxford University slang; perhaps from early Dutch dialect (in de) fonck “in difficulties;” further origin unknown

Origin of funk²

First recorded in 1615–25; perhaps from North French dialect funquier, funquer “give off smoke,” Old North French fungier, from Vulgar Latin fūmicāre, alteration of Latin fūmigāre fumigate

Explanation

If you're in a funk, it means that you've been feeling sad. You might be in a serious funk after your best friend moves across the country. One way to use funk is to mean "blues" or "depression." Everyone's in a funk sometimes — for some people, the shorter, darker winter days automatically put them in a bit of a funk. Funk also refers to a bluesy kind of music with a strong underlying bass rhythm. It comes from funky, which means "stinky" or "musty smelling," from the French funkière, "smoke." In African American music, funky became a compliment, a description of soulful, earthy music — like funk itself.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

funk Funk funks funked funking

Jackson, born in New York, got his start in music singing gospel before moving to California to perform with the ’70s funk band Mystic Merlin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

The S&P 500 was on the verge of following the Nasdaq Composite Index to a fresh record high on Monday, with technology stocks and other artificial-intelligence plays helping lift equities out of a recent funk.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

Bearing that in mind, it makes sense to him that surveys show that consumers are in a funk.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

So the Caesar-ish dressing here is intentionally concentrated: cream cheese for body, Kewpie for tang and richness, and a dab of white miso for the salty, fermented funk that anchovy ordinarily brings to Caesar.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

We can dance the Funky Chicken, tell imaginary intruders to get the funk out of our faces.

From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

In 1912 the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk proposed that illnesses such as scurvy were caused by the absence of specific chemicals in the diet, launching a race to synthesize vitamins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

The Funk brothers were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

“This amounts to a real right to bail in hundreds of thousands of cases, which previously in California might have led to detention,” said Kellen R. Funk, a legal historian at Columbia Law School.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

Appeared in the March 18, 2026, print edition as 'A Songwriter’s Country Funk'.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026

I put a blank disc into the laptop and hit the button to burn the Save Dad from His Funk playlist.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

“We played offense tonight, and sometimes you’ve got to do that to get out of funks, and I was real happy with how we executed.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2023

Psychiatrists and psychologists talk to us, shock us and above all, medicate us to lift us from our funks.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 24, 2022

They’ll be highly reliant on players like Jesse Winker, Carlos Santana, Kyle Lewis and Eugenio Suarez coming out of recent funks, and the returning players, especially Haniger, providing a significant impact.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

He watched two teammates bust out of funks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2021

He felt deeply responsible for Eric, who could be cheerfully upbeat but could also grow morose and withdrawn and sometimes would sink into deep funks, not talking for days.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

The reason was obvious, although Bach didn’t quite put it in these terms: the Games needed to be funked up for a younger generation.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 13, 2017

Gospel-infused smokin' swamp pop, clearly on-topic and funked up by Spooner Oldham's spiky, staccato keyboard flourishes.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 3, 2011

At this crux, his tears accomplished what his nerve funked.

From Time Magazine Archive

Berserk and beautiful: classical waltz music funked up for dancing by rock's baddest bad boy.

From Time Magazine Archive

And at this stage it would seem he funked.

From Tales of Space and Time by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

After funking up Marymoor Park with an ace band in 2019, the 81-year-old progressive jazz great’s taking it inside to the Paramount Theatre’s more acoustically advanced surroundings.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2021

Herbie Hancock played “Watermelon Man” in all of its Blue Note piano splendor before funking it up with a handheld synthesizer.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 24, 2016

"Everybody funking and don't know how," sang Clinton.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2016

The troubadour goes optimistic in the title track before funking out on “Walking Like a Man” and the bluegrass-influenced “Roses in the Rain.”

From Washington Times ● May 3, 2015

Here's Ilchester tells me... and Ilchester speaks of him under his breath now as if he were sitting in a pew funking the parson.

From The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Complete by George Meredith