Dunk
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act or instance of dunking, particularly in basketball.
"The point guard threaded a pass with pinpoint precision to the power forward for an easy dunk."
- 2 a basketball shot in which the basketball is propelled downward into the basket wordnet
- 1 To submerge briefly in a liquid. transitive
"I like to dunk my donut in my apple cider."
- 2 dip into a liquid while eating wordnet
- 3 To set down carelessly. transitive
"Parents shouldn't just dunk their kids in front of the TV."
- 4 immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate wordnet
- 5 To put the ball directly downward through the hoop while grabbing onto the rim with power. ambitransitive
"The center spun quickly and dunked the ball with authority."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 make a dunk shot, in basketball wordnet
- 7 To put down on social media [with on]. Internet, intransitive
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 A locality in Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia, which includes the Family Islands; one is Dunk Island, named after George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Tom likes to dunk his biscuit in his coffee."
Etymology
From Pennsylvania German dunke, from Middle High German dunken, from Old High German dunkōn (“to dip, submerge, dunk”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunkōn (“to make wet”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *þunkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to moisten, wet”). Cognate with German tunken (“to dunk”), Latin tingō (“to wet, moisten”), Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to wet, moisten”). Related to taint, tincture, tint.
Related phrases
More for "dunk"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.