Dunch
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A push; knock; bump. dialectal
"And just at the same time the tide caught the brig, and threw the wind out of her sails. She came round into the wind like a top, and the next moment struck the reef with such a dunch as threw us all flat upon the deck, and came near to shake Mr. Riach from his place upon the mast."
- 2 A leisurely meal between lunch and dinner in the late afternoon or early evening (about 3-5 p.m.), usually instead of lunch or dinner. informal, rare
"I have a lunchtime meeting tomorrow, so let's have dunch together instead."
- 3 A fat hit from a claggy lie.
- 1 To knock against; to hit, punch Geordie
- 2 To crash into; to bump into. Geordie
- 3 To gore with the horns, as a bull. Scotland
- 4 To push, jog, or nudge, especially with the elbow. British
- 1 A surname.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"And just at the same time the tide caught the brig, and threw the wind out of her sails. She came round into the wind like a top, and the next moment struck the reef with such a dunch as threw us all flat upon the deck, and came near to shake Mr. Riach from his place upon the mast."
Etymology
From Middle English dunchen, of uncertain origin. Possibly from the noun (see below); or of North Germanic origin, related to Old Swedish diunga (“to hit, knock”), dialectal Swedish dunka (“to beat”); or from Middle English dengen, from Old English denġan, denċġan (“to knock, ding”), from Proto-Germanic *dangijaną (“to bang, knock”). Compare English dinge.
From Middle English dunche, perhaps from Old English *dynċ, from Proto-Germanic *dunkiz. Compare Old Norse dykr, dynkr (“a crashing noise”), Danish dunk (“a blow”), Swedish dunk (“a thump, clap”), Norwegian dunk (“a knock, bump”).
Blend of dinner + lunch, probably in imitation of brunch.
Related phrases
More for "dunch"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.