bunk
English · Thesaurus
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bunk¹
- /bʌŋk/
Rhymes with -ʌŋk
Where it comes from
Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish Scottish English bunker (“seat, bench”), the origin of which is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian (North Germanic); compare Old Swedish bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). Possibly related to bunch.
noun bunks
- One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers. Jane sleeps in the top bunk, and her little sister Lauren takes the bottom bunk.
- A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other. When the ship reached Melbourne two days later we collared a couple of cases of apples from the hold and hid them in our bunks.
- A cot.
- A bed in a prison, worksite or similar location.
- A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
- A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
- A dormitory or bunkroom where soldiers sleep. Don’t leave your bunk unlocked.
verb bunks · bunking · bunked
- To occupy a bunk. Due to bed shortages, Jeff and Paul had to bunk together.
- To provide a bunk.
bunk²
- /bʌŋk/
Rhymes with -ʌŋk
Where it comes from
Shortened from bunkum, a variant of buncombe, from Buncombe County, North Carolina. See bunkum for more.
noun
-
Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.
What she said about me was total bunk. Don't believe a word.
Similar: hokum
- In early use often in the form the bunk. This knife-throwing act is the bunk
- A specimen of a recreational drug with insufficient active ingredient. I still can get off with a pound of bunk and pretend it's some Runtz
adjective
- Defective, broken, not functioning properly.
bunk³
- /bʌŋk/
Rhymes with -ʌŋk
Where it comes from
19th century, of uncertain origin; perhaps from previous "to occupy a bunk" meaning, with connotations of a hurried departure, as if on a ship.
verb bunks · bunking · bunked
- To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually 'to bunk off'). The naughty boys decided to bunk school and visit the comic shop.
- To expel from a school. She was bunked from the convent last term. I don't quite know what for.
- To depart; scram. "They're moving off," he said. "[…] [T]he funny little man with the beard like a goat is going a different way from everyone else — the gardeners will have to head him off. I don't see Mademoiselle, though. The rest of you had better bunk. […]"
noun bunks
- A hasty departure. You may well say chance it, lad. From what I see and what I hear it seems to be getting a pretty near thing which side touches down first, but the old geezer's dead set on going through whatever turns up, and God knows that if it comes to a general bunk he's bound to be the hindmost.
Bunk⁴
proper noun Bunks
- A surname.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: bunk bed, buncombe, berth, feed bunk, crap, lam, run, bull, bullshit, shit, dogshit, turn tail, run away, scarper, break away, rot
Translations
Every language
noun one of a series of berth in tiers
| Español | litera |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 寝台 shindai |
| 中文 | 舖位 /铺位 pùwèi, 床位 chuángwèi |
| Português | beliche |
| Français | couchette |
| Deutsch | Koje |
| Italiano | cuccetta, letto a castello |
| Русский | ко́йка kójka, по́лка pólka |
noun built-in bed on board a ship
| Español | litera, camarote |
|---|---|
| Português | beliche |
| Français | couchette |
| Deutsch | Koje |
| Italiano | cuccetta |
| Русский | ко́йка kójka |
| עברית | דַּרְגָּשׁ שֵׁנָה dargash shenah |
verb to occupy a bunk
| Русский | переночевать perenočevatʹ |
|---|
adj nonsense
| Deutsch | Quatsch |
|---|---|
| Italiano | sciocchezza |
verb to fail to attend school without permission
| Español | hacer novillos, hacer la cimarra |
|---|---|
| Français | faire l’école buissonnière, buissonner |
| Русский | прогуливать progulivatʹ |
Talk about this word "bunk." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/bunk. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. bunk. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/bunk "bunk." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/bunk.Cite this
@misc{bunk_2026,
title = {bunk},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/bunk},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
