bunk

/bəŋk/

/bəŋk/

Other forms: bunks; bunked; bunking

A bunk is a bed that's built above another bed. Twin sisters might argue nightly over who gets the top bunk.

You might find a bunk bed in a child's bedroom or a train's sleeper car. Sometimes the rough bed in a rustic cabin is also called a bunk — and you could say, "I'll bunk in the cabin tonight." Informally, bunk is also nonsense: "How can you believe that bunk?" The bed meaning is short for bunker, while the "foolishness" definition is from bunkum, named for a politician's long, dull speech in 1820, in Buncombe, North Carolina.

Definitions of bunk

1. noun

   beds built one above the other
   synonyms: bunk bed

   type of:

   bed

   a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
2. noun

   a bed on a ship or train; usually in tiers
   synonyms: berth, built in bed

   types:

   lower, lower berth

   the lower of two berths

   upper, upper berth

   the higher of two berths

   type of:

   bed

   a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
3. noun

   a rough bed (as at a campsite)
   type of:

   bed

   a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
4. verb

   provide with a bunk
   “We bunked the children upstairs”

   type of:

   bed

   furnish with a bed
5. noun

   a message that seems to convey no meaning
   synonyms: hokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality

   types:

   absurdity, absurdness, ridiculousness

   a message whose content is at variance with reason

   amphigory, nonsense verse

   nonsensical writing (usually verse)

   balderdash, fiddle-faddle, piffle

   trivial nonsense

   buzzword, cant

   stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition

   cobblers

   nonsense

   crock

   nonsense; foolish talk

   fa la, fal la

   meaningless syllables in the refrain of a partsong

   gibber, gibberish

   unintelligible talking

   incoherence, incoherency, unintelligibility

   nonsense that is simply incoherent and unintelligible

   jabberwocky

   nonsensical language (according to Lewis Carroll)

   flummery, mummery

   meaningless ceremonies and flattery

   empty talk, empty words, hot air, palaver, rhetoric

   loud and confused and empty talk

   rigamarole, rigmarole

   a set of confused and meaningless statements

   schmegegge, shmegegge

   (Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsense

   hooey, poppycock, stuff, stuff and nonsense

   senseless talk

   baloney, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle

   pretentious or silly talk or writing

   word salad

   jumble of incoherent speech as sometimes heard in schizophrenia

   abracadabra

   gibberish and nonsense

   babble, babbling, lallation

   gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby

   blather, blatherskite

   foolish gibberish

   double Dutch

   an incomprehensible talk

   double talk

   deliberately unintelligible gibberish

   gabble, jabber, jabbering

   rapid and indistinct speech

   mumbo jumbo

   language or ritual causing, or intending to cause, confusion

   type of:

   content, message, subject matter, substance

   what a communication that is about something is about
6. noun

   unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements)
   synonyms: buncombe, bunkum, guff, hogwash, rot

   types:

   bull

   obscene words for unacceptable behavior

   type of:

   drivel, garbage

   a worthless message
7. verb

   flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
   synonyms: break away, escape, fly the coop, head for the hills, hightail it, lam, run, run away, scarper, scat, take to the woods, turn tail

   types:

   flee, fly, take flight

   run away quickly

   skedaddle

   run away, as if in a panic

   break

   make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing

   stampede

   run away in a stampede

   abscond, absquatulate, bolt, decamp, go off, make off, run off

   run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along

   elope, run off

   run away secretly with one's beloved

   break loose, escape, get away

   run away from confinement

   high-tail

   retreat at full speed

   defect, desert

   desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army

   type of:

   go away, go forth, leave

   go away from a place
8. verb

   avoid paying
   synonyms: beat

   type of:

   cheat, chisel, rip off

   deprive somebody of something by deceit
9. noun

   a long trough for feeding cattle
   synonyms: feed bunk

   type of:

   manger, trough

   a container (usually in a barn or stable) from which cattle or horses feed