chunkn.1
/tʃʌŋk/, U.S. /tʃəŋk/ colloquial and dialect. figurative.1833 J. Hall Legends of West 50 If a man got into a chunk of a fight with his neighbour, a lawyer would clear him for half a dozen muskrat skins.a1860 New York in Slices, Theatre (Bartl.) Now and then a small chunk of sentiment or patriotism or philanthropy is thrown in.1876 W. Besant & J. Rice Golden Butterfly II. xvi. 254 Pay out the information in small chunks.1894 Congress. Rec. 13 July 7445/1 Just one moment, my friend. You are a lawyer... Yes, a chunk of a lawyer.1957 T. S. Eliot On Poetry & Poets 49 Crabbe is a poet who has to be read in large chunks, if at all.
a. A thick, more or less cuboidal, lump, cut off anything; e.g. wood, bread, cheese, meat, etc.
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the world > relative properties > wholeness > incompleteness > part of whole > [noun] > a separate part > a piece or bit > large or thick piece
luncheon1580
lunch1591
chuck1674
chunk1691
junt1718
daud1721
junk1726
hunch1790
hunk1809
dunt1813
knoll1829
nugget1853
slug1867
1691 J. Ray S. & E. Country Words (E.D.S.) Chuck, a great chip..In other countries [= districts] they call it a chunk.
1841 G. Catlin Lett. N. Amer. Indians I. xvi. 116 Chunks of this marrowfat are cut off.
1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. II. i. 15 A chunk of frozen walrus-beef.
1859 Times 17 Feb. 9 A considerable quantity of this kind of gold..in the state of chunks and flakes of some size.
1882 W. Besant All Sorts of Men I. x. 224 Give him a chunk of wood to whittle.
1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases Chunks, split pieces of firewood of more uniform thickness than chumps.
b. A block of wood. Chiefly U.S.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > wood > wood in specific form > [noun] > block
blockc1305
clogc1440
chocka1582
chunk1781
wood-block1837
buntons1839
1781 Witherspoon Druid No. vii, in M. M. Mathews Beginnings Amer. Eng. (1931) 25 Chunks, that is brands, half burnt wood. This is customary in the middle Colonies.
1816 J. Pickering Vocab. U.S. 60 Chunk..is also used in the Northern States, to signify a thick, short block or bit of wood.
1821 Z. Hawley Tour 21 Jan. (1822) 44 In the room of andirons, many families make use of what are here called chunks, which are the two brands of a large forestick, or billets of wood cut on purpose for this use.
1856 Knickerbocker June 634 [In the factory at Nyack] The tub is placed over a ‘chunk’, and turned off outside in a few moments, and hooped. It is next placed in a hollow chunk and turned out perfectly smooth inside.
1885 R. Jefferies Open Air 170 The pile of ‘chunks’..formed a wall of wood at my back.
1958 W. F. McCulloch Woods Words 34 Chunk, a piece of a log sawed or broken off.
c. A fair- or large-sized specimen of an animal or person. U.S.
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1822 J. Woods Two Years' Resid. Eng. Prairie 285 A hog of two hundred lbs weight is here called a fine chunk of a fellow.
1823 J. Doddridge Dialogue of Backwoodsman & Dandy (1868) I was then a thumpin chunk of a boy.
1827 Western Monthly Rev. 1 386 Himself ambling by her side upon a ‘chunk’ of a poney.
1841 C. Cist Cincinnati in 1841 180 For sale—a good chunk of a plough horse.
1872 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 454 ‘A tolerable chunk of a pony’, means, in Southern and Western parlance, a cob.
1887 C. B. George 40 Years on Rail i. 22 You're a pretty good chunk of a boy to be riding for half [fare].
1900 G. Ade More Fables 6 At the Hotel he spotted a stylish little chunk of a Woman.
d. A stoutly-built horse or pony; spec. a heavy draught-horse. U.S.
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1818 J. Palmer Jrnl. Trav. U.S. 131 The other words and sayings that are peculiar to the United States..are as follows..Chunk, a small horse.
1829 T. Flint George Mason 108 There were to be merry races of asses and ‘chunks’, by persons who volunteered as the Merry-Andrews of the meeting.
1887 Boston Herald 12 Aug. (Cent. Dict.) For sale, 4 Morgan chunks.
1906 Springfield Daily Republ. 7 Feb. 2 (advt.) Pair gray farm chunks, 9 years, 2350 lbs.
1915 Greenfield (Mass.) Gaz. & Courier 10 July 1 (advt.) For Sale—Horses. We have a few good chunks left.
e. A large or substantial amount. colloquial.
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the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > (a) great quantity or amount
felec825
muchc1230
good wone1297
plentyc1300
bushelc1374
sight1390
mickle-whata1393
forcea1400
manynessa1400
multitudea1400
packc1400
a good dealc1430
greata1450
sackful1484
power1489
horseloadc1500
mile1508
lump1523
a deal?1532
peckc1535
heapa1547
mass1566
mass1569
gallon1575
armful1579
cart-load1587
mickle1599
bushelful1600–12
a load1609
wreck1612
parisha1616
herd1618
fair share1650
heapa1661
muchness1674
reams1681
hantle1693
mort1694
doll?1719
lift1755
acre1759
beaucoup1760
ton1770
boxload1795
boatload1807
lot1811
dollop1819
swag1819
faggald1824
screed1826
Niagara1828
wad1828
lashings1829
butt1831
slew1839
ocean1840
any amount (of)1848
rake1851
slather1857
horde1860
torrent1864
sheaf1865
oodlesa1867
dead load1869
scad1869
stack1870
jorum1872
a heap sight1874
firlot1883
oodlings1886
chunka1889
whips1888
God's quantity1895
streetful1901
bag1917
fid1920
fleetful1923
mob1927
bucketload1930
pisspot1944
shitload1954
megaton1957
mob-o-ton1975
gazillion1978
buttload1988
shit ton1991
a1889 N.Y. Star in A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang I. 252/2 Look here, pard, we've struck it this time: chunks of it!
1907 Chicago Tribune 8 May 7 (advt.) It's really ridiculous the way we've knocked chunks off these Spring overcoat prices.
1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xiii. 148 Eustace and I both spotted that he had dropped a chunk of at least half a dozen pages out of his sermon-case as he was walking up to the pulpit.
1977 J. D. MacDonald Condominium xxv. 230 Steve Corbin moved that Scherbel read the whole list and they would approve it all in one chunk, and Jack Dorsey seconded it and it passed.
1985 G. Paley Later Same Day 27 He owes me a chunk of dough.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as chunk firewood;
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1888 Eastern Morning News (Hull) 25 Oct. 2/4 For sale, Chunk Firewood, 1s. per cwt.
C2.
chunk-bottle n. U.S. a stout square-shaped bottle.
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1845 W. G. Simms Wigwam & Cabin 2nd Ser. 146 Returning towards nightfall to the camp, Mingo brought with him a ‘chunk-bottle’ of whiskey.
chunk-head n. U.S. a serpent of the rattlesnake family.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Viperidae (vipers) > subfamily Crotalinae > genus Agkistrodon > agkistrodon contortix (copperhead)
copper-belly1743
copper-snake1765
copperhead1775
pilot1782
copperhead snake1788
pilot snake1793
chunk-head1880
1880 Libr. Universal Knowl. IV. 314 Copperhead..called ‘deaf adder’, and ‘chunk-head’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
chunkchunkyn.2
chunk-yard or chunky-yard, a name given by the traders to a square area surrounded by a bank in Creek towns, used for ceremonials and games (including that of chungke). chunk pole or chunky pole; a pine-tree pillar on a low mound in the centre of the chunk-yard, on the top of which was placed an object to shoot at.
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society > leisure > sport > place for sports or games > [noun]
ring?a1400
rink1489
game place1542
playing field1583
rink-room1594
stadium1603
cirque1644
xystus1664
amphitheatre1710
field1730
grandstand1754
chunk-yard1773
sports ground1862
park1867
sports field1877
pitch1895
close1898
sports centre1907
padang1909
sports stadium1911
bowl1913
field house1922
sportsdrome1951
sports complex1957
astrodome1964
dome1965
sportsplex1974
1773 Bartram Trav. Florida 518 (Bartl.) Vast tetragon terraces, chunk-yards, and obelisks or pillars of wood.
1860 H. D. Thoreau Let. 4 Nov. in Corr. (1958) 595 That memorable stone ‘chunk yard’, in which we made our humble camp.
1865 J. Lubbock Prehist. Times vii. 214 The ‘Chunk Yards’..are sometimes from six to nine hundred feet in length, being largest in the older towns... In the centre is a low mound, on which stands the Chunk Pole.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
chunkv.1
U.S. colloquial.
transitive.
1.
a. To hit, or throw at, with a missile.
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1835 W. G. Simms Partisan 112 Well, doctor, get down and chunk it, if its worth having, its worth killing.
1835 W. G. Simms Partisan 425 His dog stole my bacon..and when I chunked the varmint, the nigger gin me sass.
1859 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 2) To Chunk, to throw sticks or chips at one. Southern and Western.
1872 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 188 In the South..they say: ‘I'll chunk him’, meaning that they will throw a clod of earth or a stick of wood at some animal.
1887 J. C. Harris Free Joe & Other Georgian Sketches 115 Ef you want to chunk anybody, chunk me... An' ef you don't want to chunk me, chunk your mammy.
a1910 ‘O. Henry’ Sixes & Sevens (1916) xii. 120 The crowd kept on chunkin' her till she run clear out of town.
1968 J. D. MacDonald Pale Grey for Guilt (1969) xii. 153 He chunked the four that were turned on to the biggest high, chunked them cold, and he chunked the record player, busted it all to hell.
b. To knock out with something hard or heavy.
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1857 D. H. Strother Virginia Illustr. 204 She handed her entrapped escort a stone. ‘Here, Sammy, chunk your foot out with this.’
2.
a. To replenish (a fire) with fuel; to collect materials for burning. Frequently with up.
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the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > burning > burn or consume by fire [verb (transitive)] > make a fire > add fuel to (a fire)
beetc1275
timber1486
mend?a1505
stoke1735
to make up1781
bank1825
chunk1840
to stack up1892
1840 Southern Literary Messenger 6 398/2 Chunk the fire, Charles, and see if you cannot make it burn better.
1850 L. H. Garrard Wah-to-Yah iv. 69 Smith kept the squaws of the lodge ‘chunking’ up the fire.
1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 33 To chunk up, to collect and pile for burning the slash left after logging.
1929 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 33 There was a fire..and T. P. squatting..in front of it, chunking it into a blaze.
b. Logging. (See quots.)
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1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 33 Chunk, to clear the ground, with engine or horses, of obstructions which can not be removed by hand.
1969 L. G. Sorden Lumberjack Lingo 24 Chunk out, to clean skid roads, especially to remove chunks.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
chunkv.2
intransitive. To proceed with a plunging or explosive sound. Also transitive.
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the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [verb (intransitive)]
clap1509
bounce1552
fulminate1651
explode1673
detonate1729
detonize1731
chunk1890
chunk-chunk1898
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [verb (transitive)]
chunk1924
1890 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 50 Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?
1924 Scribner's Mag. Feb. 206/2 The Chindwin's paddles chunked a song now.
1925 Blackwood's Mag. Oct. 560/2 A Thames steamer chunking her way up the Tigris.
1952 J. Masters Deceivers vii. 76 The waterwheel..distantly chunked and gurgled.
Derivatives
chunk-chunk n. and v.
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the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [noun]
clapc1440
back-blast1577
bouncea1616
blast1635
fulminating1651
fulmination1651
detonation1677
blow1694
explosion1736
bursting1771
blowing up1772
blowing1799
blow-up1807
pong1823
chunk-chunk1898
chunking1902
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [verb (intransitive)]
clap1509
bounce1552
fulminate1651
explode1673
detonate1729
detonize1731
chunk1890
chunk-chunk1898
1898 Daily News 20 Jan. 5/4 We heard the chunk-chunking sound of the Maxims.
1908 Daily Chron. 29 Aug. 4/4 She makes a cheerful chunk-chunk with her paddles.
1924 ‘L. Malet’ Dogs of Want iv. 103 A..paddle-steamer chunk-chunking across to St. Gingolph.
ˈchunking n. and adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [noun]
clapc1440
back-blast1577
bouncea1616
blast1635
fulminating1651
fulmination1651
detonation1677
blow1694
explosion1736
bursting1771
blowing up1772
blowing1799
blow-up1807
pong1823
chunk-chunk1898
chunking1902
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sudden or violent sound > explosive sound > [adjective]
clapping1582
exploding1755
detonating1808
detonative1875
detonable1884
chunking1902
1902 E. Rickert Cypress Swamp 2 There was a chunking sound, followed by another.
1907 Tatlock Devel. & Chronol. Chaucer's Wks. 138 Amid the cluttering and chunking of one hundred and twenty-eight hoofs.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.11691
n.21773
v.11835v.21890- raise a dust
- raise a finger
- raise a finger against
- raise a finger against a person
- raise a finger against a thing
- raise a finger to
- raise a finger to a person
- raise a finger to a thing
- raise a gallop
- raise a ghost
- raise a glass
- raise a hand against
- raise a hand against a person
- raise a hand against a thing
- raise a hand to
- raise a hand to a person
- raise a hand to a thing
- raise a laugh
- raise a laughter
- raise a moorburn
- raise a person out
- raise a person's spirits
- raise a racket
- raise a reek
- raise a stink