Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. fearful, timid, nervous, cowardly; also as adv.

1821		Flash Dict. n.p.: Funk frightened.
1837		‘Jack Muggins’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 173: For a long time he did kick rather funky, / However he got over that.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Black Mousquetaire’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 21: St. Foix never would drink now unless he was dry; / Besides, what the vulgar call ‘sucking the monkey’ / Had much less effect on a man when he’s funky.
1848		Era (London) 17 Sept. 5/2: Dawson’s people had made Otterbourne an he-normous faverite, so Bob got funky, and [...] backed him for a kiple of ponies.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 97/1: Did you ever know a Funky man? [...] I mean a moral coward, a man who funks against his own better knowledge, and is desperately ashamed of himself all the while.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 284: To show you that I ain’t such a funky cove, I leave you.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 418: He had come up by express purely to relieve my anxiety, knowing how ‘funky’ young gentlemen sometimes were over such trifles.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 237: The second round commences with a little cautious sparring on both sides, the bouncing Elias looking very funky.
1878		letter 15 Dec. in T. Hughes Gone To Texas (1884) 31: The Mexicans are very funky of Americans if they have a pistol with them.
1883		‘’Arry on His Critics and Champions’ in Punch 14 Apr. 180/1: Young pidgins too funky to flutter, old roosters too stale to enjoy.
1892		‘Tommy and his Sister Jane’ in ‘F. Anstey’ Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 152: I’m a nervous nunky, / For downright felonies I’m far too funky!
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 8/2: Sydney banking and commercial men are beginning to feel pretty funky about the future.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 206: ‘This cove [...] is turning funky.’ ‘Funky nothing!’.
1918		K.F. Purdon Dinny on the Doorstep 169: Remember the first time we played tennis here? I was horribly funky.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 572: Mr Bloom [...] moved off but nevertheless remained on the qui vive with just a shade of anxiety though not funkyish in the least.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 212: She’s right as rain while she isn’t funky.
1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 91: A chap who’s hairy plucky enough to fight the Bruiser couldn’t possibly do a dirty sneaking funky thing like running away from school.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 358: Is that mighty bird funky? Is he yellow?
1964		N.B. Harvey Any Old Dollars, Mister? 95: He was funky all right. So was I.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 24: All I registered was funky panic.
1983		S. King Christine 229: ‘Ole Cuntface got his machine street-legal and his funky folks have got him parking it out at the airport. ’ He laughed.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 337: ‘Oo’s a funky junky then? Oo’s a funky junky?’.

2. a general term of disparagement: unpleasant, unappealing etc.

1906		O.W. Hanley ‘Dialect Words From Southern Indiana’ in DN III:ii 118: funky, adj. Mouldy, old. ‘This butter’s funky.’.
1927		John Hyman’s Bayou Stompers [song title] Ain’t love Grand (Don’t Get Funky).
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 15: When he finally showed himself, he came on like a funky rat.
1951		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 174: The folklorist, Jack Conroy, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, August 24, 1951, remembered the following two-line fragment from his boyhood at Moberly, Missouri, forty years before: ‘Fifteen nickels an’ a rusty dime, / Will buy a little funky-butt any old time’.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 161: It’s funky London Town, man. I don’t like it.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 12: If he hadn’t had the funky bitch sitting damn near in his lap, the dope wouldn’t have been found at his feet.
1983		R. Price Breaks 307: I shambled over in my funky unshaven state.
1994		UGK ‘Feds in Town’ 🎵 That shit is funky like a black skunk.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 380: If anything funky went down, I’d be back in jail.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 191: I saw Funky Führer Nick Ray blaspheme, bloviate and bluster.

3. out of order, malfunctioning.

1983		S. King Christine 219: The speedometer seemed fine; it was only the milometer that had gotten funky.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 2: Warren had a bad valve in his engine [...] Maybe he had a nitrous boost on it and didn’t care about one funky valve.