junket
Americannoun
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a sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.
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a pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.
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a trip, as by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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an excursion, esp one made for pleasure at public expense by a public official or committee
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a sweet dessert made of flavoured milk set to a curd with rennet
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a feast or festive occasion
verb
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(intr) (of a public official, committee, etc) to go on a junket
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to have or entertain with a feast or festive gathering
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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junketsimple
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junketssimple
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have junketedperfect
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has junketedperfect
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am junketingprogressive
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are junketingprogressive
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is junketingprogressive
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have been junketingperfect progressive
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has been junketingperfect progressive
Past
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junketedsimple
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had junketedperfect
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was junketingprogressive
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were junketingprogressive
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had been junketingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing junket
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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:
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
He tells reporters as much during a mini junket he organizes for himself over breakfast at the Ritz London, where Marty puts himself up despite having no way to pay for such luxurious accommodations.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025
“They have a nice little junket for a couple of weeks, they hear a couple of cases and then they’re flown out again,” he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2024
Also, this was the rare press junket at magic hour, where I was able to just use natural light.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
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
With some exceptions — non-studio productions approved by the union — performers are prohibited from promoting their films at press junkets or on red carpets.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
On the other end, public events morph into exclusive junkets with prolonged, personal access extended over days.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2023
What is worse, he has granted an extension of the truce to Spain, and Tremouille and the rest of them are off to the junkets.
From The Honour of Savelli A Romance by Levett-Yeats, S. (Sidney)
While Nasser junketed through Soviet Russia, his press grandly proclaimed that the German "loan," along with an earlier $175 million Soviet credit, would enable Egypt to fulfill its five-year plan in three years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Between tours she junketed on a Portuguese tramp steamer with a cargo of wild animals and a mad captain.
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
Vainly hoping to settle the question without offending either side, a committee of Amalgamated officials last week junketed to Coshocton, Ohio to see William Green.
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
She did all the things that rich girls were supposed to do: attending finishing school, making a glittering debut and junketing to Europe.
From Time Magazine Archive
Continuing their junketing round of Southeast Asian nations in search of money and sympathy, the two arrived at Manila, where they got plenty of sympathy.
From Time Magazine Archive
That’s why this junketing around we’d planned so finely, doesn’t appeal to her as it does to us,” said Dorothy, at last, lifting her violin to her shoulder and rising to her feet.
From Dorothy at Oak Knowe by Raymond, Evelyn
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.
