Gunge

//ɡʌnd͡ʒ// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of gong: an outhouse. alt-of, alternative, obsolete
  2. 2
    A viscous or sticky substance, particularly an unpleasant one of vague or unknown composition; goo; gunk. Ireland, UK, uncountable, usually

    "Have I got trails of gunge on these frills?"

  3. 3
    Alternative spelling of ganj. British, India, alt-of, alternative
  4. 4
    Tholin. informal, uncountable, usually

    "They call this solid material tholin (after the Greek word for muddy), but it seems likely that chemists will continue to call this rather familiar material “gunge.”"

Verb
  1. 1
    To clog with gunge. often, with-up
  2. 2
    To cover with gunge. British

    "I've been gunged on children's TV, hung out with some actors off that soap Dad used to watch, done a photoshoot for a major highstreet fashion outlet and now here we are on the red carpet, outside the cinema in Leicester Square […]"

Example

More examples

"Have I got trails of gunge on these frills?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

See gong.

Etymology 2

First attested around 1935–40. Probably an alteration of gunk.

Etymology 3

From Hindi गंज (gañj).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.