junk
1 Americannoun
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any old or discarded material, as metal, paper, or rags.
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anything that is regarded as worthless, meaningless, or contemptible; trash.
-
old cable or cordage used when untwisted for making gaskets, swabs, oakum, etc.
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Nautical Slang. salt junk.
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Baseball Slang. relatively slow, unorthodox pitches that are deceptive to the batter in movement or pace, as knuckleballs or forkballs.
verb (used with object)
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junks,
present (3rd person singular)
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junked,
past participle, past
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junking
present participle
adjective
noun
noun
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narcotics, especially heroin.
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the external genitals.
I kicked him in the junk.
noun
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discarded or secondhand objects, etc, collectively
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informal
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rubbish generally
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nonsense
the play was absolute junk
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slang any narcotic drug, esp heroin
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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junksimple
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junkssimple
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have junkedperfect
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has junkedperfect
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am junkingprogressive
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are junkingprogressive
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is junkingprogressive
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have been junkingperfect progressive
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has been junkingperfect progressive
Past
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junkedsimple
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had junkedperfect
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was junkingprogressive
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were junkingprogressive
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had been junkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of junk1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English jonk, junk “(in sailing) old rope or cable”; further origin uncertain
Origin of junk2
First recorded in 1545–55; from Portuguese junco, from Malay jong “large boat, ship,” possibly from dialectal Chinese (Xiamen) chûn; compare Guangdong (Cantonese) dialect syùhn, (Mandarin) Chinese chuán
Origin of junk3
First recorded in 1920–25; perhaps special use of junk 1
Explanation
Junk is trash, debris, or garbage — it's something that's left behind or thrown away because it's not wanted. You might view the broken toaster as junk, while your sister sees it as an interesting repair project. After an accident, your car might be junk, and if it's hauled off to a scrapyard, you can say you had to junk it, using the verb meaning "to throw it away." One person's junk, however, is another person's valuable metal that can be sold to recycling companies. A completely different, non-trashy kind of junk is a Chinese sailing ship. These uses are connected through the nautical origin of junk, originally spelled junke and meaning "old rope or cable."
Vocabulary lists containing junk
Chinese History - Introductory
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
It also runs a piece looking at a "prolonged rout in the riskiest parts of the global market for junk debt".
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
The selloff in European corporate debt—and increasing risk in U.S. junk debt—has hit several hedge funds that focus on those markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
In 2004, he was working at a junk yard and living in a house in National City, an associate told the FBI.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
It’s junk, and Eminem seems to know it.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026
I stood there and looked hard at all the bushes and trees and junk and everything, to make sure nothing moved.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
Atop chairs, tables, and an overstuffed sofa, black-and-white prints of junks on the Yangtze River competed for space with cancelled passports and half-century-old issues of Vogue and Collier’s.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 11, 2017
Thousands more South Vietnamese took to sea in a motley group of boats, junks, rafts and sampans.
From US News ● Apr. 30, 2015
He junks that 71-line poem, deeming it a “work of the second intensity,” which is apparently some sort of Modernist insult that we should immediately bring back into common use.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2014
The Selden map is a reminder that Chinese traders sailing in junks navigated in Asian waters centuries before the Europeans came.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 31, 2013
The outline of the prow was already in place, turning up wide and snubnosed, the way all junks did.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
OpenAI unilaterally junked their three-month-old billion-dollar deal without warning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
More than 400 of the UK's church pipe organs are being junked or falling silent due to neglect every year.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026
A pile of junked cars, different scale radio telescopes and an unfinished freeway ramp to nowhere are all visible from that opening train shot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2024
Piled on sidewalks, junked up against street curbs, and leaned against light poles, these unwieldy obstacles are a hazard for innocent citizens just trying to walk down the street.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 20, 2023
Ripples of heat rose from the junked cars, which were lined up in rows as far as Roy could see.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Sell or donate anything that’s usable and in good shape; recycle what you can before junking the rest.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
At Brunello, a town near the Swiss border in Northern Italy, data management business Pure Storage is putting a data centre on a digital diet by trimming bits and bytes and junking surplus information.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2023
Merlino said she was stunned the commissioners voted for junking the machines and returning to old-fashioned hand counts.
From Reuters ● Nov. 6, 2022
It should continue to work on the Communities feature so people can chat about things they’re interested in rather than junking up their followers’ timelines with stuff they won’t care about.
From The Verge ● Apr. 25, 2022
She was taking the entire Garland value system and junking it!
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
