junk

See also: Junk, -junk, and -jünk

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: jŭngk, IPA^(key): /dʒʌŋk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Etymology 1

From Middle English junke (“old cable, rope”), probably from Old French jonc (“rush”), from Latin iuncus (“rush”). Doublet of junco and juncus.

A box full of junk (2)

Noun

junk (uncountable)

1. Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash, garbage.
   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.

2. A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
3. (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
   • 1961, William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine, page 7

     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.

4. (slang) The genitalia, especially a man’s.
   • 2009, Kesha, Tik Tok

     I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk

     Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk

     Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

5. (nautical) Salt beef.
6. 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.
7. (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Lowell to this entry?)

8. (attributive) Material or resources of a kind lacking commercial value.

   junk fish; junk trees

9. Nonsense; gibberish

   The student put down junk for answers just to finish his homework more quickly.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:trash
• Thesaurus:cameltoe
• Thesaurus:male crotch bulge

Derived terms

• junkaholic
• junkball
• junk bond
• junk bottle
• junk conference
• junk DNA
• junk drawer
• junker
• junk food
• junkhead
• junkheap
• junk hook
• junkie, junky
• junk in the trunk
• junk job
• junkless
• junklike
• junk mail
• junkman
• junkpile
• junk ring
• junkroom
• junk science
• junkshop
• junk shot
• junk sick
• junk time
• junk vat
• junk wad
• junkware
• junkyard

 

Translations

rubbish, waste

• Bulgarian: отпадъци (bg) m pl (otpadǎci)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Danish: bras (da), ragelse (da), affald (da)
• Dutch: rommel (nl) m, rotzooi (nl) m, afval (nl) n, brol (nl) m (Flemish)
• Estonian: prügi, jäätmed, praht
• Finnish: romu (fi), roska (fi), jäte (fi)
• French: ordure (fr), déchets (fr)
• Galician: lixo m
• Georgian: ნაგავი (nagavi)
• German: Schrott (de) m, Müll (de) m, Abfall (de) m
• Greek: σκουπίδια (el) pl (skoupídia)
• Hebrew: אַלְטֶע זַאכֶן‎ m (álte zákhen)
• Hungarian: lom (hu)
• Icelandic: rusl (is) n, drasl (is) n
• Italian: immondizia (it) f, rifiuti (it), spazzatura (it) f, pattume (it) m
• Khmer: ឡាប់សង (lap sɑɑŋ), របស់អេបចាយ (rɔbɑh eɛp caay)

• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: scrūta n pl
• Maori: paraurehe
• Plautdietsch: Schunt n
• Polish: śmieci pl
• Portuguese: lixo (pt) m
• Russian: хлам (ru) m (xlam), скрап (ru) m (skrap), му́сор (ru) m (músor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: отпад m, олупина f

  Roman: otpad (sh) m, olupina (sh) f

• Spanish: basura (es) f
• Swedish: skräp (sv) n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: གད་ཉིག (gad nyig), ཕུང་རྫས (phung rdzas)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

miscellaneous items of little value

• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: roina (fi), kama (fi)
• Galician: quincalla f
• Georgian: ხარახურა (xaraxura)
• German: Kram (de) m, Kleinkruscht m, Ramsch (de) m, Krempel (de) m
• Greek: παλιατσαρία (el) f (paliatsaría)
• Hungarian: kacat (hu)
• Icelandic: drasl (is) n
• Italian: paccottaglia, ciarpame (it) m, cianfrusaglie, robaccia f
• Khmer: ឡាប់សង (lap sɑɑŋ), របស់អេបចាយ (rɔbɑh eɛp caay)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: krāmi m pl, grabasti m pl (dialectism)

• Maori: paraurehe
• Navajo: inchxǫ́ʼį́
• Persian: بنجل‎ (fa) (bonjol)
• Portuguese: porcaria (pt) f
• Russian: барахло́ (ru) n (baraxló), хлам (ru) m (xlam), ру́хлядь (ru) f (rúxljadʹ)
• Spanish: cachivache (es) m, trasto (es) m, cachureo (es) m (Chile), calache m (Nicaragua), chéchere m (Colombia, Panama, Western Venezuela), chunche (es) m (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua), coroto (es) m (Venezuela), tiliche (es) m (Mexico) (often used in pl)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: གད་ཉིག (gad nyig), མཁོ་མེད (mkho med)
• Vietnamese: phế liệu (vi)

narcotic drug

• Bulgarian: хероин m (heroin)
• Dutch: spul (nl) n, gerief (nl) n
• Finnish: kama (fi)
• French: came (fr) f

• German: Stoff (de) m
• Greek: ναρκωτικό (el) n (narkotikó), (slang) πρέζα (el) f (préza)

slang: genitalia

• German: Eier (de) n, Krempel (de) m, Nüsse (de) f, Klöten (de) f
• Italian: coglioni (it) m pl

• Polish: klejnoty (pl) f pl
• Russian: (male) хозяйство (ru) n (xozjajstvo)

Verb

junk (third-person singular simple present junks, present participle junking, simple past and past participle junked)

1. (transitive, informal) To throw away.
2. (transitive, informal) 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."

Synonyms

• (throw away): bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away, throw out, toss, trash
• See also Thesaurus:junk

Translations

throw away

• Bulgarian: изхвърлям (bg) (izhvǎrljam)
• Danish: kassere, smide ud
• Dutch: weggooien (nl), wegwerpen (nl), wegsmijten (nl), dumpen (nl)
• Finnish: romuttaa (fi)

• Italian: rottamare (it)
• Russian: выбра́сывать (ru) impf (vybrásyvatʹ), вы́бросить (ru) pf (výbrositʹ)

Etymology 2

The Kangxi Emperor on a tour, seated prominently on the deck of a junk.

From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Malay or Javanese djong, variant of djung, from Old Javanese jong (“seagoing ship”), ultimately from Chinese.

Noun

junk (plural junks)

2. (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.

Translations

Chinese sailing vessel

• Arabic: جُنْك‎ m (junk)
• Bulgarian: джонка f (džonka)
• Catalan: jonc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中國式帆船, 中国式帆船 (Zhōngguó shì fānchuán), 舟 (zh) (zhōu), 艚 (zh) (cáo)

• Czech: džunka f
• Danish: junke c
• Dutch: jonk (nl) f
• Esperanto: ĵonko
• Finnish: džonkki (fi)
• French: jonque (fr) f
• Galician: xunco m
• German: Dschunke (de) f
• Hindi: जंग (hi) f (jaṅg)
• Hungarian: dzsunka (hu)
• Icelandic: djúnka f, júnka f
• Irish: siunca (Síneach) m
• Japanese: ジャンク (janku)

• Malay: ajung, jong (ms)
• Navajo: binááʼádaałtsʼózí bitsin naaʼeeł
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: djunke m

  Nynorsk: djunke m

• Persian: جنگ‎ (fa) (jong)
• Polish: dżonka (pl) f
• Portuguese: junco (pt) m
• Russian: джо́нка (ru) f (džónka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: џонка f, џунка f

  Roman: džonka f, džunka (sh) f

• Slovak: džunka f
• Spanish: junco m
• Swedish: djonk (sv) c
• Thai: สำเภา (th) (sǎm-pao)
• Tibetan: རྒྱ་བཟོ་ཤིང་གྲུ (rgya bzo shing gru)
• Vietnamese: ghe (vi)

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Bavarian

Etymology

From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁n̥ḱós.

Adjective

junk

1. (Sappada) young

References

• “junk” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

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Cimbrian

Alternative forms

• djung, jung, jungh

Etymology

From Middle High German junc, from Old High German jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁n̥ḱós.

Adjective

junk

1. (Tredici Comuni) young

References

• “junk” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

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North Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian diunk, from Proto-Germanic *dinkwaz, variant of *dankwaz (“dark”). Compare with German dunkel.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /jʊŋk/

Adjective

junk

1. (Sylt) dark

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Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German and Old Saxon jung

Adjective

junk (comparative jinja)

1. young