Unperk

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make (someone) less lively or enthusiastic. transitive

    "I told him I was going into Stokenchurch in his Ford whether he drove me or not. He perked up a bit at that, but I pretty soon unperked him, and at last we got going on the road to Stokenchurch."

  2. 2
    To become less lively or enthusiastic. intransitive

    "[…] one single woman did perk up a bit, about there being a lot of single guys there, but then she unperked when she recalled that the cost of living is higher there."

Example

More examples

"I told him I was going into Stokenchurch in his Ford whether he drove me or not. He perked up a bit at that, but I pretty soon unperked him, and at last we got going on the road to Stokenchurch."

Etymology

From un- + perk.

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