kerplunk

Noun

kerplunk (plural kerplunks)

1. (informal) A sound of someone or something falling and landing heavily.
   • If my life were a Saturday-morning cartoon, you would have heard a loud kerplunk as my stomach dropped. My poor starving stomach. It was under such stress already, and now this.2005, Michelle Tea, chapter 15, in Rose of No Man’s Land […], 1st Harvest edition, Orlando, Fla.; Austin, Tex.: Harcourt, published 2007, →ISBN, page 125

   Synonyms:

   kerchunk, plunk, thud

2. (US, dated, figuratively, slang) A disappointment which comes as a surprise.

Interjection

1. Used to indicate a thudding sound.
   • We flipped to see who'd go first and I won, which meant Claudia had to dial. I called the number out loud for her, and inside me my heart was suddenly going "kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk," heavy as an elephant's feet.1986 November, Eve Bunting, chapter 7, in Sixth-grade Sleepover (An Apple Paperback), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 41

Verb

kerplunk (third-person singular simple present kerplunks, present participle kerplunking, simple past and past participle kerplunked)

1. (informal, intransitive) To make the sound of falling and landing heavily; to thud.