tonk

Noun (1)

tonk (plural tonks)

1. (US, derogatory, slang) An illegal immigrant of any country.
   • 1990: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee - An agent, Larry Moy, when asked to define the derivation of the term “tonk,” replied: “...it's the sound of flashlight hitting somebody's head, tonk"....
   • 1998: Cirenio Rodriguez & Enrique T Trueba, Leadership, education and political action, in Ethnic Identity and Power: Cultural Contexts of Political Action in School and Society - "Catch as many tonks as you guys can. Safely. An alien is not worth busting a leg."

Noun (2)

tonk (countable and uncountable, plural tonks)

1. (slang) An item or items of value, or of perceived value, especially for sale.
   • How much tonk have we got to shift?

Noun (3)

tonk (uncountable)

1. A matching card game, combining features of knock rummy and conquian.
   • It has big deep-down chairs and a card table by the window covered with jade, dracena and doctor plants until they want to have card games or play tonk between themselves.1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, Vintage (2016), page 13

Interjection

1. Representing a sound produced by knocking on something hollow.
   • In one of those stampings into the yard he suddenly rushed at the tank and tapped it. Tonk, tonk, tonk, tab. One rung left. Only one rung; about a week's supply of water.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 153

Noun (4)

tonk (plural tonks)

1. A sound produced by knocking on something hollow.
2. (colloquial) A resounding strike of the ball; a powerful hit of the ball with the bat.

Verb

tonk (third-person singular simple present tonks, present participle tonking, simple past and past participle tonked)

1. (colloquial, transitive) To knock or strike (a ball) so that it flies through the air.
   • Then your dad would step up and spend 45 minutes repeatedly tonking the ball over the shower block […]2012, Iain Macintosh, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cricket But Were Too Afraid to Ask
   • Moments later, Sehwag tonked the ball and it travelled some distance.2014, Makarand Waingankar, Guts & Glory

Noun (5)

tonk (plural tonks)

1. (slang) A tank.

Adjective

tonk (comparative tonker, superlative tonkest)

1. (UK, slang) Big, muscular, massive.
   • In this new paradigm of masculine excellence, anyone can achieve physical perfection if they put in the hours. It is an aspirational narrative, accompanied by a specific vernacular. Men are hench, wammo or tonk. […] Whereas the vest-wearing action stars of the 80s needed physical strength to hoik...2018 June 27, Sirin Kale, “‘Get shredded in six weeks!’ The problem with extreme male body transformations”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   hench, able-bodied, athletic, Atlantean, beefy, beefed out, brawny, brolic, buff, built

Noun (6) capitalized: Tonk

Tonk (plural Tonks)

1. A Tonkinese cat.

Proper noun capitalized: Tonk

Tonk

1. A district of Rajasthan, India.