junk
UK/d͡ʒʌŋk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/d͡ʒɐŋk/
junk noun: miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
Noun (1)
junk (usually uncountable, plural junks)
- Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
- This shed is full of junk – will you help me sort it out?
- She needs to find a better place to keep her junk [= belongings].
- Material or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack commercial value.
- junk food
- junk fish; junk trees
- Nonsense; gibberish.
- The student put down junk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.
- Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
- 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.1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC
- 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.1966 [1961], William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy), New York: Grove Press, page 7
- The genitalia, especially of a male.
- I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk / Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk / Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk2009, “Tik Tok”, performed by Kesha
- 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.2019 April 18, Genny Glassman, “Parent Torn After Discovering 5-Year-Old Neighbor 'Flashed' Kids & Told Them to Keep It a Secret”, in CafeMom
- Synonyms:
- anaconda, baloney pony, bald-headed hermit, banana, bird, birdie, bobby, boonga, cack, choad
- Salt beef.
- My physician has ordered me three pounds of minced salt-junk at every meal .c. 1851-1852, James Russell Lowell, Leaves from My Journal in Italy and Elsewhere
- 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.
- A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
- Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his,
An' gives a good-sized junk to all1848, [James Russell Lowell], “(please specify the page)”, in Homer Wilbur [pseudonym], editor, Melibœus-Hipponax. The Biglow Papers, […], Cambridge, Mass.: George Nichols, →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. […]”1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
- Dear Uncle Sam pervides fer his,
- An entity with no whole; every part is itself a proper part of something larger.
Verb
junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)
- To throw away.
- Synonyms:
- bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away
- 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."
- To consume junk food, mainly at a fast-food restaurant.
- Let's just junk some burgers at McDonald's.
- Let me go junking to KFC with you.
Noun (2)
junk (plural junks)
Proper noun capitalized: Junk
Junk (plural Junks)
- A surname.
junk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
junk in Hindi
- Chinese sailing vessel
- जंग jaṅg
junk in Tamil
- சீனப்படகு, வேண்டாத பொருள்கள்
junk in Marathi
- junk, rubbish
- बकवास bakvās
junk in Urdu
- junk, scrap
- کباڑ kabāṛ
More languagesFewer languages
- junk in Bengali
- আবর্জনা, পুরাণ দড়ির টুকরা, ত্তঁচলা
- junk in Malayalam
- ഉപയോഗശൂന്യമായ സാധനങ്ങൾ, ചവറ്, ചീനക്കപ്പൽ, പ്രാകൃതമോ വിലകുറഞ്ഞതോ ആയ വസ്തു
- junk in Kannada
- ಕಸ, ಕಳಪೆ ವಸ್ತು, ಕಚಡ, ಬಿಸುಟ ವಸ್ತು
- junk in Gujarati
- ઉકરડો ukarṛo
- junk in Odia
- ଜଙ୍କ୍
- junk in Arabic
- جُنْك junk
- junk in Malay
- ajung, jong
- junk in Indonesian
- jung
- junk in Persian
- بنجل bonjol, جنگ jong
- junk in Thai
- สำเภา sǎm-pao
- junk in Vietnamese
- phế liệu, ghe
Examples of junk in a sentence
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
- Ah love nothing (except junk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring).1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 21:
- Got a spot on the voice, I'm a neo punk / Old ladies cum when I flash my junk2023, “Neo Punk”, in Every Loser, performed by Iggy Pop:
Synonyms of junk
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of junk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | junks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | junks |
| present participle | junking |
| past participle | junked |
| past | junked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Junks |
Origin of junk
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".
From Portuguese junco with reinforcement from Dutch jonk, from Arabic جُنْك (junk), from Malay jong, جوڠ, from Javanese ꦗꦺꦴꦁ (jong), from Old Javanese joṅ (“seagoing ship”), probably from Proto-Mon-Khmer *d₂luuŋ ~ *d₂luŋ ~ *d₂luəŋ ~ *d₂ləŋ (“boat”). Doublet of djong.
South German surname, spelling variant of Jung.
Words formed from junk
- High Junk
- Junk Bay
- junk dollar
- junk party
- antijunk
- chartjunk
- cyberjunk
- dejunk
- hunk of junk
- Jesus junk
- junkaholic
- junkball
- junk beverage
- junkboard
- junk bond
- junk bottle
- junkbox
- junk conference
- junk DNA
- junk drawer
- junk drink
- junk email
- junker
- junk fee
- junk food
- junk food news
- junk gun
- junk head
- junkhead
- junkheap
- junk-hook
- junkie
- junky
- junk in one's trunk
- junk in the trunk
- junk job
- junk journal
- junkless
- junklike
- junk mail
- junk mailer
- junkman
- junkmobile
- junk news
- junk orbit
- junkpile
- junk rig
- junk ring
- junkroom
- junkscape
- junk science
- junk shop
- junkshop
- junk shot
- junk sick
- junk-sick
- junk sickness
- Junkspace
- junk sport
- junk time
Phrases with junk
- junk vat
- junk wad
- junk DNAs
- junk fees
- junk guns
- junk jobs
- junk rigs
- junk vats
- junk wads
- junk yard
- salt junk
- junk bonds
25 more phrasesFewer phrases
- junk foods
- junk heads
- junk mails
- junk rings
- junk shops
- junk shots
- junk title
- junk yards
- space junk
- Junk Ceylon
- junk drinks
- junk emails
- junk sports
- junk bottles
- junk dollars
- junk drawers
- junk mailers
- hunks of junk
- junk journals
- junk sciences
- piece of junk
- junk beverages
- pieces of junk
- junk sicknesses
- junk conferences
Words that rhyme with junk
Questions about junk
- What does junk mean?
- Junk means miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
- What is junk in Hindi?
- Junk in Hindi is जंग (jaṅg). See Junk meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use junk in a sentence?
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.
- What part of speech is junk?
- Junk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce junk?
- Junk is pronounced /d͡ʒʌŋk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of junk?
- The plural of junk is junks.
Words near junk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: junk (page history and authors); Junk (page history and authors); junk (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); बकवास (Marathi) (page history and authors); کباڑ (Urdu) (page history and authors); junk (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); junk (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); junk (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ઉકરડો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); junk (Odia, 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-junk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “junk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/junk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.