slunk

English

Etymology

From an allusive sense of slink (“to bring forth young prematurely”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slʌŋk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Noun

slunk (plural slunks)

1. An animal, especially a calf, born prematurely or abortively.
   • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press:

     Then I met a great guy, Placenta Juan the Afterbirth Tycoon. Made his in slunks during the war. (Slunks are underage calves trailing afterbirths and bacteria, generally in an unsanitary and unfit condition.)

   • 2001, ed. Rob Cook, The Making of a Drum Company, Hal Leonard, published 2001, page 53:

     Calf heads were tanned from yearling calves less than a year in age. Slunk skins were tanned from unborn calfskins which, gruesome as it sounds, were often by products of the cow slaughtering process.

Verb

slunk

1. simple past and past participle of slink

Anagrams

• lunks