Wiktionary

junk

See also: Junk, -junk, and -jünk

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to Middle English junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from Old French jonc, from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".

 
A box full of junk (2)

Noun

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junk (usually uncountable, plural junks)

  1. Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash, garbage.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trash
    • 1977, George Lucas, Star Wars: A New Hope, spoken by Luke Skywalker:
      What a piece of junk!
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
  2. A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
  3. (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
    • 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
      The poor fellow took so much junk into his system he could only weather the greater proportion of his day in that chair with the lamp burning at noon, but in the morning he was magnificent.
    • 1966 [1961], William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy), New York: Grove Press, page 7:
      Trace a line of goose pimples up the thin young arm. Slide the needle in and push the bulb watching the junk hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suck junk through all the hungry young cells.
    • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 21:
      Ah love nothing (except junk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring).
  4. (slang) The genitalia, especially of a male.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis
    • 2009, “Tik Tok”, performed by Kesha:
      I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk / Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk / Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk
    • 2019 April 18, Genny Glassman, “Parent Torn After Discovering 5-Year-Old Neighbor 'Flashed' Kids & Told Them to Keep It a Secret”, in CafeMom‎[2]:
      But what to do about a kid who flashes his privates at your child? And worse, how do you make sure your kid does not reciprocate? That's exactly the dilemma one mom faced when she learned that her 5-year-old neighbor had flashed his "junk" at her two sons and then made them swear not to tell.
    • 2023, “Neo Punk”, in Every Loser, performed by Iggy Pop:
      Got a spot on the voice, I'm a neo punk / Old ladies cum when I flash my junk
  5. (nautical) Salt beef.
    • c. 1851-1852, James Russell Lowell, Leaves from My Journal in Italy and Elsewhere:
      My physician has ordered me three pounds of minced salt-junk at every meal .
  6. Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.
  7. (dated, countable) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
    • 1846-1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:
      Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his,
      An' gives a good-sized junk to all
    • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
      Then he lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid.
      “Cut me a junk o’ that,” says he, “for I haven’t no knife and hardly strength enough, so be as I had. […] ”
  8. (attributive) Material or resources of a kind lacking commercial value.
    junk fish
    junk trees
  9. Nonsense; gibberish.
    The student put down junk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)

  1. (transitive, informal) To throw away.
  2. (transitive, informal) To find something for very little money (meaning derived from the term junkshop)
    (On Facebook, a record collector wrote:) "The newest addition to my Annette Hanshaw collection, I junked this beautiful flawless E-copy within walking distance from my house."
Synonyms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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The Kangxi Emperor on a tour, seated prominently on the deck of a junk.

From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Arabic جُنْك (junk), from Malay jong (جوڠ), from Javanese ꦗꦺꦴꦁ (jong), from Old Javanese joṅ (“seagoing ship”).

Noun

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junk (plural junks)

  2. (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.
Derived terms
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Translations
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References

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Further reading

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Bavarian

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Etymology

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From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung.

Adjective

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junk

  1. (Sappada) young

References

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Cimbrian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung.

Adjective

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junk

  1. (Tredici Comuni) young

References

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Middle English

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Noun

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junk

  1. Alternative form of jonk

North Frisian

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Old Frisian diunk, from Proto-Germanic *dinkwaz, variant of *dankwaz (“dark”). Compare with German dunkel.

Adjective

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junk

  1. (Sylt) dark
Inflection
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Inflection of junk (Sylt dialect)
  singular plural
indefinite definite
positive
predicative / adverbial junk
attributive
independent junken junk junken
partitive junks —
comparative
predicative / adverbial junker
attributive
independent junkeren junker junkeren
partitive junkers —
superlative
predicative / adverbial am junksten
attributive junkst
independent — junkst junksten
Alternative forms
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Etymology 2

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From Proto-Germanic *inkw.

Pronoun

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junk

  1. (Sylt, dated) Object case of at: you two, both of yourselves

Determiner

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junk (invariable)

  1. (Sylt, dated) your, of you two (second-person dual possessive determiner)

Pronoun

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junk (plural junken)

  1. (Sylt, dated) yours, that of you two (second-person dual possessive pronoun)

See also

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Personal and possessive pronouns (Sylt dialect)
personal possessive
subject case object case singular
referent 		plural referent
full reduced full reduced attributive independent
singular 1st ik 'k mi min minen
2nd dü – di din dinen
3rd m. hi 'r höm 'n sin sinen
3rd f. jü 's höör 's höör höören
3rd n. hat et, 't höm et, 't sin sinen
dual 1st wat unk unken
2nd at junk junken
3rd jat jam 's jaar jaaren
plural 1st wü üüs üüsen
2nd i juu juuen
3rd ja 's jam 's jaar jaaren
notes The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. Et is not enclitic and can stand in any unstressed position; the full subject form hat is now rarely used. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur.
The dual forms are dated, but not obsolete as in other dialects.
Independent possessives are distinguished from attributive ones only with plural referents.

Plautdietsch

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Etymology

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From Middle Low German and Old Saxon jung.

Adjective

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junk (comparative jinja)

  1. young
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