bunk

Meanings

Noun

• One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers.
• A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other.
• A cot.
• A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
• A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
• Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.

Verb

• To occupy a bunk.
• To provide a bunk.
• To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually as in 'to bunk off').
• To expel from a school.

Adjective

• defective, broken, not functioning properly

Origin

• Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish English bunker, origin is uncertain but possibly Scandinavian.
• Confer Old Swedish bunke.
• See also boarding, flooring and confer bunch.
• Shortened from bunkum, a variant of buncombe, from Buncombe County, North Carolina. See bunkum for more.
• 19th century, of uncertain origin; perhaps from previous "to occupy a bunk" meaning, with connotations of a hurried departure, as if on a ship.