punk
/ˈpʌŋk/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms punks punx punker punkest punking punked
- noun (archaic) A female prostitute.
- noun (obsolete) A boy or younger man who engages in sexual intercourse by an older man as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
- noun (chiefly US, LGBTQ) A passive or effeminate homosexual man.
- noun (US, LGBTQ, slang) A boy who accompanies a hobo, especially as used for sex.
- noun (US, LGBTQ, derogatory, chiefly African-American Vernacular) A male homosexual.
- noun (US, LGBTQ, prison slang) A man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship, especially in prison. “Because he was so weak, Vinny soon became Tony's punk.”
- noun (countable, US, slang) A worthless person, particularly:
- noun (humorous, rare) Any person, especially a male comrade.
- adjective Bad, substandard.
- adjective Thuggish, criminal.
- adjective (chiefly African-American Vernacular) Cowardly.
- adjective Poorly, sickly.
- adjective Inexperienced.
- adjective Of or concerning punk rock or its associated subculture. “You look very punk with your t-shirt, piercing, and chains.”
- verb (slang) To pimp.
- verb (slang, transitive) To forcibly perform anal sex upon (an unwilling partner). “Ricky punked his new cell-mates.”
- verb (slang, transitive) To prank. “I got expelled when I punked the principal.”
- verb (especially with "out") To give up or concede; to act like a wimp. “Jimmy was going to help me with the prank, but he punked (out) at the last minute.”
- verb (transitive, often with "out" or "up") To adapt or embellish in the style of the punk movement.
- noun (uncountable) Any material used as tinder for lighting fires, such as agaric, dried wood, or touchwood, but especially wood altered by certain fungi.
Synonyms
fornicatrix lady of the night wapping mort abandons alley cat almah bangtail Bankside lady bargirl bat beotch blouze blowen blowsabella brass nail brasser brass broad business girl calico queen hood hoodlum goon thug tough toughie strong-armer kindling tinder touchwood
Etymology
Uncertain. Possibly from punk (“rotten wood dust used as tinder”), attested since 1678, to anything worthless (attested since 1869) and then to any undesirable person (since 1908). The relatively tame 21st century usage of punk (“prank”, verb) was popularized by the American television show Punk'd (2003).
Unclear; first attested circa 1680 in writings about Native American practices, probably from Unami punkw (“dust”), though it has also been suggested it could be an alteration of spunk (“tinder”) (compare funk (“rotten wood”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Wood so decayed as to be dry, crumbly, and useful for tinder; touchwood.
- noun A fungus (Polyporus fomentarius, etc.) sometimes dried for tinder; agaric.
Etymology [Cf. Spunk.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “punk”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details