dunking

American

[duhng-king] / ˈdʌŋ kɪŋ /

noun

the action of plunging or being plunged into water or other liquid.

Learning to canoe cost her several dunkings.

Etymology

Origin of dunking

First recorded in 1915–20; dunk + -ing ¹

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:

dunking

After securing victory with a service winner, Sabalenka celebrated by dunking her head in an ice cooler.

From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2026

But the dunking spawned the legend of the "Curse of the Colonel" that said the Tigers would never win another title until the effigy was recovered.

From Barron's ● Dec. 3, 2025

Gene Cao spends six days a week working at a Chinese restaurant near Tampa, Fla., dunking crab rangoons and chicken wings into the fryer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025

He starts each morning by folding his hands in prayer, dunking his face in a sink full of ice water afterward.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2025

When I got back, Gus was home from work, sitting in a lawn chair dunking turnip greens in a bucket of water.

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023