Word.ws English Dictionary

erk

erk noun: a member of the groundcrew in the RAF.

Noun (1)

erk (plural erks)

  1. (UK, slang) A member of the groundcrew in the RAF.
    • But I wasn’t accepted for flying duty—eyesight failed me. Neither was Frank, which, I’m ashamed to say, I found a relief. We were both channelled as aircrafthands, known to everyone as erks.2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 9, in Small Island, London: Review, page 345

Interjection

  1. (colloquial) An expression of trepidation; eek.
  2. (Australia, colloquial) An expression of revulsion or disgust; yuck.
    • ‘Gawd, erk!’ She recoiled and turned away.1959, D'Arcy Niland, The Big Smoke, page 43
    • ‘Erk! What’s that big ugly growth you’ve got?’1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, page 29

Noun (2) capitalized: ERK

ERK (countable and uncountable, plural ERKs)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase.

Forms of erk

pluralerks
pluralERKs

Origin of erk

Claimed to be a respelling of the abbreviation airc for aircraftsman; or else from irk.

Words formed from erk

Words that rhyme with erk

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about erk

What does erk mean?
Erk means a member of the groundcrew in the RAF.
What part of speech is erk?
Erk can be a noun or an interjection.
What is the plural of erk?
The plural of erk is erks.

Words near erk in the dictionary

  1. Erivan
  2. erization
  3. erizational
  4. erizo
  5. erizos
  6. erk
  7. Erker
  8. Erkers
  9. erkier
  10. erkiest
  11. Erkrath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: erk (page history and authors); ERK (page history and authors). 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-erk.ogg.

Cite this entry: “erk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/erk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.