dork
UK/dɔːk/US/doɹk/
dork noun: a quirky, silly or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends and typically has unfashionable hobbies. (Overlaps conceptually with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence.). Also the alternative form of dirk.
Noun
dork (plural dorks)
- A quirky, silly or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends and typically has unfashionable hobbies. (Overlaps conceptually with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence.)
- I entitled the piece "Dorky", dork being slang for a person who does not belong to popular groups, usually an outsider, an odd person, sometimes inept, other times cranky.1962, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Last year at Marienbad, page 167
- I didn’t have any clothes and I had short hair and looked like a dork. Girls wouldn’t go out with me.1967, Don Moser and Jerry Cohen, The Pied Piper of Tucson
- Synonyms:
- dirk
- The penis.
- As a matter of fact, this slob was full of information today. He told me why we Jews have different dorks.1962, Jerome Weidman, The Sound of Bow Bells, page 362
- "You’re dead, Trashmouth," Vince “Boogers” Taliendo told him, pulling his jock up over a dork roughly the size and shape of an anemic peanut.1986, Stephen King, It
- Synonyms:
- dirk, anaconda, baloney pony, bald-headed hermit, banana, bird, birdie, bobby, boonga, cack
Verb
dork (third-person singular simple present dorks, present participle dorking, simple past and past participle dorked)
- To act or behave in the manner of a dork.
- To act or behave in an awkward or clumsy manner.
- I spent all weekend dorking with the router settings with no luck, though I could get any one out of my 5 PCs on the net when connected directly to the modem.2001 December 3, Jack Price, “Re: Anybody @home?”, in pdx.computing (Usenet)
Also used as
dork is also the alternative form of dirk.
dork meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
dork in Hindi
- डोर्क, डॉर्क
dork in Marathi
- डोर्क, डॉर्क, डोर्क करण्यासाठी
dork in Urdu
- ڈورک
dork in Bengali
- ডর্ক, ডোর্ক
More languagesFewer languages
- dork in Telugu
- డోర్క్
- dork in Malayalam
- ഡോർക്ക്, ഡോർക്
- dork in Kannada
- ಡೋರ್ಕ್, ಡೋರ್ಕ್ಗೆ
- dork in Punjabi
- ਡੌਰਕ, ਡੋਰਕ
- dork in Gujarati
- ડોર્ક, ડૉર્ક, ડોર્ક કરવા માટે
- dork in Odia
- ଡୋର୍କ, ଡୋର୍କ୍
- dork in Nepali
- डोर्क
- dork in Indonesian
- udik
Synonyms of dork
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of dork
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dorks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dorks |
| present participle | dorking |
| past participle | dorked |
| past | dorked |
Origin of dork
First use appears in the US c. 1961. The sense of a "silly person" is presumably from earlier use as a bowdlerization of dick (“penis”) in student slang, particularly the Midwest. Despite a common misconception, it has never referred specifically to a whale's penis, but penises in general. Alternative etymology derives from dialectal Norwegian dorg (“a mass; heap; a heavy, dimwitted, slovenly person”).
Uncertain; apparently from Scots. See dirk.
Words formed from dork
Words that rhyme with dork
Questions about dork
- What does dork mean?
- Dork means a quirky, silly or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends and typically has unfashionable hobbies. (Overlaps conceptually with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence.).
- What is dork in Hindi?
- Dork in Hindi is डोर्क, डॉर्क. See Dork meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dork?
- Dork can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dork?
- Dork is pronounced /dɔːk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dork?
- The plural of dork is dorks.
Words near dork in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dork (page history and authors); dork (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dork (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-dork.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dork.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dork. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.