Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US/N.Z.) a seedy, ‘lowlife’ bar.

1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 266: He [...] bought me a big feed of steak and frenchfries at Lau Yee Chai’s, get that, Lau Yee Chai’s. No tonks for Maggio.
1971		(con. 1910s) G.M. Foster Pops Foster 19: There were tonks like Real Tom Anderson’s at Rampart and Canal.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 98: Let’s go find us a tonk [...] I want to play the juke and eat a pickled pig’s foot. I want to drink beer and shake my ass.
1986		(con. c.1920) D. Barker Life in Jazz 35: A performance in one tonk earned them more money than I earned with the shoe shine in a whole day.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 58: [A] dumb joke he’d first heard in a tonk.