junket

Meanings

Noun

• A basket.
• A type of cream cheese, originally made in a rush basket; later, a food made of sweetened curds or rennet.
• A delicacy.
• A feast or banquet.
• A pleasure-trip; a journey made for feasting or enjoyment, now especially a trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment.
• A press junket.
• A gaming room for which the capacity and limits change daily, often rented out to private vendors who run tour groups through them and give a portion of the proceeds to the main casino.

Verb

• To attend a junket; to feast.
• To go on a junket; to travel.
• To regale or entertain with a feast.

Related

Similar words

• banquet
• gallivant, jaunt

Origin

• From Middle English jonket, from Medieval Latin iuncta, possibly from Latin iuncus and therefore a possible jonquil.
• Meaning shifted to "feast of banquet" by 1520s, probably via the notion of a picnic basket. This in turn led to the sense of "pleasure-trip" (1814), and then to specifically to "trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment" by 1886 in American English.