junket

American  

[juhng-kit] / ˈdʒʌŋ kɪt /

noun

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

2. a pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

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

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verb (used without object)

• junkets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• junketed,
  past participle,  past
• junketing
  present participle

1. to go on a junket.

verb (used with object)

• junkets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• junketed,
  past participle,  past
• junketing
  present participle

1. to entertain; feast; regale.

junket British  

/ ˈdʒʌŋkɪt /

noun

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

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

3. a feast or festive occasion

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verb

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

2. to have or entertain with a feast or festive gathering

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• junketer
  noun
• junketing
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• junketing
  present
• junketed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• junket
  simple
• junkets
  simple
• have junketed
  perfect
• has junketed
  perfect
• am junketing
  progressive
• are junketing
  progressive
• is junketing
  progressive
• have been junketing
  perfect progressive
• has been junketing
  perfect progressive

Past

• junketed
  simple
• had junketed
  perfect
• was junketing
  progressive
• were junketing
  progressive
• had been junketing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will junket
  simple
• will have junketed
  perfect
• will be junketing
  progressive
• will have been junketing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of junket

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

Explanation

A junket is a pleasure trip, often funded by someone else. You've probably heard of a politician taking a junket to a fancy resort, all paid for using taxpayer money. A junket can be used as a gift to try to get something from the person going on the trip. If you're a travel reporter and resort owners pay for your junket to check out their new property in Hawaii, you might feel like you owe them a good review. A junket isn't always devious: the word can simply mean a journey taken for pleasure, like when you take your boat out and sail down the coast for a couple days.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

junket junkets junketed junketing

Ken Bensinger, a New York Times reporter who covers media and politics, wrote about this junket of Loomer’s.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

In March 2024, several dozen insurance agents from the U.S. took part in a three-day junket in and around Medellín, Colombia, where Regan lived and worked.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

A 10-minute-or-less junket slot isn’t much time, but it’s certainly not nothing.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2025

He recalled how once during a series of five-minute junket interviews, one journalist compared being an actor to being a liar and it sent Pearce into an existential tailspin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024

She ate a big plateful of cabbage and salmon and finished off with junket.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

And no rules at the Guardian, apparently, regarding outrageous boondoggles and ocean-going junkets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

“At the first X Factor press junkets, journalists were saying, ‘Why are you here?

From BBC ● May 11, 2024

He conducted upbeat live interviews with actors and musicians from behind the anchor desk and was a mainstay at premiere red carpets and movie junkets.

From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2024

Coming from Hollywood, where many actors lament the rigors of one-day press junkets, the players’ accessibility seemed almost excessive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024

And we are grateful for all this, to say nothing of your cider and your junkets.

From The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield

Between tours she junketed on a Portuguese tramp steamer with a cargo of wild animals and a mad captain.

From Time Magazine Archive

Fortnight ago it throttled. 41-to-26, the University of California, which by next week will have junketed 6,000 miles to display its talent.

From Time Magazine Archive

He has joked, junketed to race tracks, sat up all night at wild parties, entertained Hollywood and ignored the city's problems.

From Time Magazine Archive

He did a bit of loafing, broke out his bow and arrow for archery practice, gave a few parties, junketed off to Manhattan.

From Time Magazine Archive

For this end alone they consulted, and caballed, and calculated, and junketed; and the Lecompton Constitution, with the Schedule annexed, was the worthy fruit of their labors.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 06, April, 1858 by Various

On a modern marketing budget, that would barely cover the junketing cast's travel and minibar expenses, but at the time, the advertising reach was, as The Times wrote in 1975, "a promotion man's dream."

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2015

It is above all serious, and tries to stay away from the flim-flam of artworld tourism and junketing.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 11, 2012

Then fortnight ago in San Francisco, California's earnest young Representative Will Rogers Jr., junketing on a lecture tour, gave currency to a proposal often discussed among experts on the Far East.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mayor Key first got into trouble with prohibitors when, junketing through France with other U. S. mayors last spring, he publicly opined that Prohibition did not prohibit, was in fact an "abysmal failure."

From Time Magazine Archive

Did they say it was a junketing we were bent upon?'

From Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune by Charles James Lever

Related Words

• excursion