junk drawer
junk drawer noun: a drawer designated for the storage of various miscellaneous, small, useful items of little value.
Noun
junk drawer (plural junk drawers)
- A drawer designated for the storage of various miscellaneous, small, useful items of little value.
- With a ⁵/₈-inch sandpaper disk cutter, if you happen to have one in the junk drawer, or with a brass or steel tube of the same size sharpened to an edge at one end, four wheels suitable for the engine mandrel may be cut from each eraser.1912, William D. Tracy, “Notes on Practice”, in The Journal of the Allied Societies, volume 7, page 376
- We all know that the junk drawer doesn't really contain junk. We know junk when we see it, and that gets tossed pretty fast. It's the odds and ends that had a limited purpose once, are still functional, and one day may come in handy, but for now . . .1997, Allegra Bennett, Renovating Woman, page 239
- Synonyms:
- kitchen drawer, knick-knack drawer
Examples of junk drawer in a sentence
- There's nothing wrong with having a junk drawer.2002, Donna Smallin, Organizing plain & simple, page 54:
- Crammed with twist ties and stray screws, the standard junk drawer is a sanctuary for items we hoard out of practicality or affection or the nagging fear that "this may come in handy someday".2005 Jun, M. Diane McCormick, “A Place for Everything”, in Old-House Journal, volume 33, number 3, page 33:
- I think of the junk drawer in my kitchen and the collection of artifacts it holds that tell many tales of family, friends, and events that form the “stuff” of my life.2013, Margaret Macintyre Latta, Curricular Conversations: Play is the (Missing) Thing, page 24:
Synonyms of junk drawer
Forms of junk drawer
| plural | junk drawers |
|---|---|
| alternative form | junkdrawer |
Origin of junk drawer
junk + drawer
Questions about junk drawer
- What does junk drawer mean?
- Junk drawer means a drawer designated for the storage of various miscellaneous, small, useful items of little value.
- How do you use junk drawer in a sentence?
- There's nothing wrong with having a junk drawer.
- What part of speech is junk drawer?
- Junk drawer is a noun.
- What is the plural of junk drawer?
- The plural of junk drawer is junk drawers.
Words near junk drawer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: junk drawer (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:
Cite this entry: “junk drawer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/junk_drawer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.