funk

/fəŋk/

/fəŋk/

Other forms: funked; funking; funks

If you're in a funk, it means that you've been feeling sad. You might be in a serious funk after your best friend moves across the country.

One way to use funk is to mean "blues" or "depression." Everyone's in a funk sometimes — for some people, the shorter, darker winter days automatically put them in a bit of a funk. Funk also refers to a bluesy kind of music with a strong underlying bass rhythm. It comes from funky, which means "stinky" or "musty smelling," from the French funkière, "smoke." In African American music, funky became a compliment, a description of soulful, earthy music — like funk itself.

Definitions of funk

1. noun

   a state of nervous depression
   “he was in a funk”

   synonyms: blue funk

   type of:

   depression

   a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity
2. noun

   an earthy type of jazz combining it with blues and soul; has a heavy bass line that accentuates the first beat in the bar
   type of:

   jazz

   a genre of popular music that originated in New Orleans around 1900 and developed through increasingly complex styles
3. verb

   draw back, as with fear or pain
   synonyms: cringe, flinch, quail, recoil, shrink, squinch, wince

   types:

   retract, shrink back

   pull away from a source of disgust or fear

   type of:

   move

   move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion