• (UK,US)IPA^(key):/d͡ʒʌŋk/
• (General Australian,New Zealand)IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɐŋk/

• Audio(General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ʌŋk
• Homophone:junque

From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", fromMiddle Englishjunk,jounke,jonk,joynk(“an old cable or rope”,nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related tojoin,joint,juncture. Often compared toMiddle Englishjunk,jonk,jonke,junck(“a rush; basket made of rushes”), fromOld Frenchjonc, fromLatiniuncus(“rush, reed”); however, theOxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".

junk (usuallyuncountable,pluraljunks)

1. Miscellaneousitems of littlevalue, especiallydiscarded orunwanted items.

   Synonyms:clutter;see alsoThesaurus:trash

   This shed is full ofjunk – will you help me sort it out?

   She needs to find a better place to keep herjunk [= belongings].

   • 1977, George Lucas,Star Wars: A New Hope, spoken by Luke Skywalker:

     What a piece ofjunk!

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, inThe Economist‎^[1], volume407, number8837, page74:

     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. (attributive) Material or resources of poorquality or lowvalue, especially resources that lackcommercial value.

   junk food

   junk fish;junk trees

3. Nonsense;gibberish.

   The student put downjunk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.

4. (slang) Any narcoticdrug, especiallyheroin.
   • 1957,Jack Kerouac,On the Road, Viking Press,→OCLC:

     The poor fellow took so muchjunk 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 thejunk hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suckjunk through all the hungry young cells.

   • 1994 [1993],Irvine Welsh,Trainspotting, London: Minerva,→ISBN,page21:

     Ah love nothing (exceptjunk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring).

5. (slang) Thegenitalia, especially of amale.

   Synonyms:seeThesaurus:penis

   • 2009, “Tik Tok”, performed byKesha:

     I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk / Boys tryin' to touch myjunk, 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”, inCafeMom‎^[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”, inEvery Loser, performed byIggy Pop:

     Got a spot on the voice, I'm a neo punk / Old ladies cum when I flash myjunk

6. (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 .

7. Pieces of oldcable orcordage, used for makinggaskets,mats,swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, formingoakum for filling theseams ofships.
8. (dated,countable) Afragment of anysolidsubstance; athick piece; achunk.
   • 1846-1848,James Russell Lowell,The Biglow Papers:

     Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his,
     An' gives a good-sizedjunk 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 ajunk o’ that,” says he, “for I haven’t no knife and hardly strength enough, so be as I had.[…]”

junk (third-person singular simple presentjunks,present participlejunking,simple past and past participlejunked)

1. (transitive,informal) Tothrow away.
2. (transitive,informal) Tofind something for very littlemoney (meaning derived from the termjunkshop)

   (On Facebook, a record collector wrote:) "The newest addition to my Annette Hanshaw collection, Ijunked this beautiful flawless E-copy within walking distance from my house."

• (throw away):bin,chuck,chuck away,chuck out,discard,dispose of,ditch,dump,scrap,throw away,throw out,toss,trash
• See alsoThesaurus:junk

FromPortuguesejunco orDutchjonk (or reinforced), fromArabicجُنْك(junk), fromMalayjong(جوڠ), fromJavaneseꦗꦺꦴꦁ(jong), fromOld Javanesejoṅ(“seagoing ship”), probably fromProto-Mon-Khmer*d₂luuŋ ~ *d₂luŋ ~ *d₂luəŋ ~ *d₂ləŋ(“boat”).

junk (pluraljunks)

2. (nautical) AChinesesailingvessel.

• “junk,n.³”, inOED Online ⁠, Oxford:Oxford University Press, September 2024.

FromMiddle High Germanjunc, fromOld High Germanjung.

junk

1. (Sappada)young

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013)Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

• djung,jung

FromMiddle High Germanjunc, fromOld High Germanjung.

junk

1. (Tredici Comuni)young

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013)Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

junk

1. Alternative form ofjonk

• IPA^(key):[jʊŋk]

FromOld Frisiandiunk, fromProto-Germanic*dinkwaz, variant of*dankwaz(“dark”). Compare withGermandunkel.

junk

1. (Sylt)dark

• jonk(Föhr-Amrum)

FromProto-Germanic*inkw.

junk

1. (Sylt,dated)Object case ofat:youtwo, both ofyourselves

junk (invariable)

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

junk (pluraljunken)

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

FromMiddle Low German andOld Saxonjung.

junk (comparativejinja)

1. young