sponk

Noun

spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)

1. (countable, obsolete, usually) A spark.
   • "[...] That's none such an entirely bad little man, yon little man with the red head," said Alan. "He has some spunks of decency."1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Talk with Alan in the Wood of Lettermore”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris...
2. (usually) Touchwood; tinder.
   • Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red.1650, Thomas Browne, chapter II, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 5
3. (UK, countable, obsolete, usually) Synonym of taper, a thin stick used for transferring flames, especially a sulfur match.
   • At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door.1829, Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick (Edinburgh), Report, p. 7

   Synonyms:

   taper

4. (Scotland, countable, obsolete, usually) Synonym of match, a thin chemically-treated stick used for creating flames.
   • ... the old sulphur match was intended, not to produce fire, but to convey fire from the tinder to the candle... The vernacular name for sulphur matches was "spunks", and even in some of the country districts of Scotland the name has descended to modern matches.1907 November, Elliot Stock & al., "Notes of the Month“, The Antiquary, Vol. XLIII (OS) or III (NS), No. 11, p. 411

   Synonyms:

   match

5. (usually) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
   • She showed me the letters of another individual, too, the unfortunate Mr. Green, who had not the courage, or, as she expressed it, the “spunk,” to plead his cause in person, but whom one denial would not satisfy: he must write again and again.1847, Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, ch 17.
6. (Australia, New Zealand, UK, countable, slang, usually) An attractive person; a good-looker.
   • I got a transfer in my bank job and on the first day on the job in the big smoke I had to share a teller's box with a young lady called Kim, a real spunk and my future wife.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 82

   Synonyms:

   Adonis, beefcake, hunk

See all 10 meanings of spunk