honk

Onomatopoeic.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɒŋk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɑŋk/, /hɔŋk/
• Rhymes: -ɒŋk

honk (third-person singular simple present honks, present participle honking, simple past and past participle honked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To use a car horn.

   They stood and observed how long it took for the other cars to honk.

2. (intransitive) To make a loud, harsh sound like a car horn.
3. (intransitive) To make the vocal sound of a goose.
4. (slang, intransitive) To vomit.
   • 1992, Wayne's World (film):

     WAYNE: Phil, what are you doing here? You're partied out, man. Again.
     GARTH: What if he honks in the car?

5. (slang) To have a bad smell.

   Synonyms: stink, pong

6. (informal) To squeeze playfully, usually a breast or nose.

   She honked my titties.

• honk it on
• honk off
• honker
• honking

honk (countable and uncountable, plural honks)

1. The harsh note produced by a typical car horn.
   • 1961 July, J. Geoffrey Todd, “Impressions of railroading in the United States:Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 424:

     The operator went out on to the platform with his handlamp and waved it in the traditional "wash-out" signal across the body. The engineer had been expecting this and responded at once with an acknowledging honk on the horn before bringing this huge, 16-car train gently to a stand at the platform.

2. The cry of a goose or similar bird.
3. (slang) A bad smell.

   Synonyms: stink, pong

honk

1. Imitation of car horn, used, for example, to clear a path for oneself.

honk (plural honks)

1. Clipping of honky.

• honk-shoo

• Kohn, khon

From Middle Dutch honc, likely through Old Dutch from Proto-Germanic *hank-, *hunk-. Only has cognates in the Frisian languages and possibly in the Old High German placename Hancwin. Since cognates outside of Germanic are lacking, the word is probably of substrate origin.^[1] Possibly related to haak (“hook”) and hoek (“corner”).

• IPA^(key): /ɦɔŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: honk
• Rhymes: -ɔŋk

honk n (plural honken, diminutive honkje n)

1. (somewhat rare) home, place where one belongs, shelter
2. (games) base (safe zone, e.g. in baseball and similar sports)

• (home): thuis, heem

• honkbal
• honkvast
• jeugdhonk
• krachthonk

• → Papiamentu: honk (dated)