junket

[ juhng-kit ]

/ ˈdʒʌŋ kɪt /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR junket ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.

a pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

a trip, as by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.

verb (used without object)

to go on a junket.

verb (used with object)

to entertain; feast; regale.

RELATED WORDS

excursion, outing, journey

Nearby words

Origin of junket

1350–1400; Middle English jonket < Old French (dial.) jonquette rush basket, equivalent to jonc (< Latin juncus reed) + -ette -ette

Related formsjun·ket·er, noun

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

Examples from the Web for junket

The only downside for the Congressman was if their junket became public.
Former Lobbyist Jack Abramoff On Congressional Travel Disclosure|Jack Abramoff|July 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
On a Congressional junket, paid for by a private party, you have tens of hours of exclusive time with a Congressmen.
Former Lobbyist Jack Abramoff On Congressional Travel Disclosure|Jack Abramoff|July 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I've been on exactly one 10-day junket to China, so I'm hardly qualified to answer that question.
The US China Accounting War||December 13, 2012|DAILY BEAST
In an interview the day after the junket for The Town, Affleck resisted being neatly boxed into the comeback story narrative.
The 'New' Ben Affleck|Nicole LaPorte|September 13, 2010|DAILY BEAST

“It was like a performance,” Paltrow told an ITN reporter during the Two Lovers junket.
Joaquin Phoenix's Great Practical Joke|Gina Piccalo|August 22, 2010|DAILY BEAST
Devonshire cream, of course; and part of a large dish of junket, which is something like curds and whey.
The Adventures of A Brownie|Miss Mulock
In the evening dont take cream, strawberries, or junket, unless you eat hard cheese with them.
Early English Meals and Manners|Various
As junket will turn to whey if it is broken with a spoon to any extent, serving it in the mold is the better plan.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2|Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
On one occasion recently a local aldermanic junket had been arranged to visit Philadelphia—a junket that was to last ten days.
Sister Carrie|Theodore Dreiser
Stir the junket tablet in the cold water till it melts, and add this.
The Fun of Cooking|Caroline French Benton

British Dictionary definitions for junket

junket

/ (ˈdʒʌŋkɪt) /

noun

an excursion, esp one made for pleasure at public expense by a public official or committee

a sweet dessert made of flavoured milk set to a curd with rennet

a feast or festive occasion

verb

(intr) (of a public official, committee, etc) to go on a junket

to have or entertain with a feast or festive gathering

Derived Formsjunketer, junketter or junketeer, nounjunketing, noun

Word Origin for junket

C14 (in the sense: rush basket, hence custard served on rushes): from Old French (dialect) jonquette, from jonc rush, from Latin juncus reed

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 junket

junket

late 14c., "basket in which fish are caught or carried," from Medieval Latin iuncata "rush basket," perhaps from Latin iuncus "rush." Shifted meaning by 1520s to "feast, banquet," probably via notion of a picnic basket, which led to extended sense of "pleasure trip" (1814), and then to "tour by government official at public expense for no discernable public benefit" (by 1886, American English). Cf. Italian cognate giuncata "cream cheese" (originally made in a rush basket), a sense of junket also found in Middle English and preserved lately in dialects.