spunk n.
1. courage, bravery.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | She Stoops to Conquer Act I: The squire has got spunk in him. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Fontainebleau III i: lackland: Sir, I have spirit and ability, (shews the purse). tallyho: Spunk and Rhino! | |
| ‘De Kilmainham Minit’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: We saw de poor Fellow was funking; / De Drizzle stole down from his Eye, / Tho’ we taut he had got better Spunk in. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mass. Spy 10 Dec. n.p.: The word ‘spunk’ signifies courage, when there is no danger. | |
| Poor Gentleman III i: Damn it! this is spunk, and plain speaking! | |
| Yankey in England 34: I admire your independent spirit. I like to have people think well of themselves. You have convinced me of your spunk. | |
| Life in London (1869) 55: ’Tis then I shows I’ve got some spunk. | |
| N.Y. Enquirer 15 Apr. 2/4: From his known bottom and spunk, it was thought he stood a good chance if he could withstand the first rush of the Pink. | |
| ‘Morton’ Old Sailor’s Yarns 195: Why, you have no more spunk than a hooked codfish! | |
| ‘Billy Taylor’s Three Square’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 11: Billy Taylor was a gay young fellow, / Full of spunk, and full of glee. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 40: I’ve not got the spunk to make a real large haul. | |
| Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 115: She has spunk enough to do that herself. | |
| Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 102: Johnson or some one to lend ’em the wit / An’ the spunk jes’ to mount Constitootion. | |
| Slaver’s Adventures 57: The old man has lost his spunk; he isn’t the skipper that he was five years since. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 Jan. 5: [pic. caption] Emily Jessup enters a go-as-you-please match with a sneak thief and wins the belt for spunk and speed, by capturing the culprit. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Spunk - Spirit, fire, courage, mettle, good humor. | |
| Mrs Rasher’s Curtain Lectures 24: I intend to be a great woman; and if you had one bit or grain of spunk you’d be a great man. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 17/2: We believe they are chockfull of spunk, and, if they get time to be licked into military form, we quite expect them to show what sort of grit we Australians have. | |
| ‘Brummy Usen’ in Roderick (1972) 77: He hadn’t spunk enough to be a bushranger. | |
| Lord Jim 187: If Sherif Ali’s emissaries had been possessed – as Jim remarked – of a pennyworth of spunk, this was the time to make a rush. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 23 Mar. 6/3: Digger [...] faced his foe with the spunk of a bull pup. | |
| Ballygullion 29: He picks up more spunk than you’d ha’ thought [...] an’ before Mary knowed where she was he was sittin’ on the dhresser beside her wi’ his arm round her waist. | |
| Jim of the Ranges 16: You’ve got spunk, Kid [...] you’re not just thinking of yourself. | |
| Dinny on the Doorstep 40: Just fancy the poor little pair! The spunk of them; spending their money like that! | |
| (con. 1910s) Elmer Gantry 329: Come on now, Clee, show some spunk! | |
| Coonardoo 298: Rotten, that’s what I am. There goes my son to look for his mother ... and I haven’t the spunk to go with him. | |
| (con. WWI) Flesh in Armour 264: ‘He had more spunk than all of us’. | |
| On Broadway 1 May [synd. col.] ‘Confessions of a Nazi Spy’ [...] would rate your bravos for its spunk. It represents Hollywood telling the dictators (finally) to go to hell. | |
| Horse’s Mouth (1948) 273: But by God, I beat ’em. Yes, there’s spunk in the old louse. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 70: With [...] more spunk than was healthy for one little man. | |
| Scene (1996) 124: He had a little spunk [...] but it took more than a little spunk to be a good Narco man. | |
| Apprentices (1970) I i: Have I to tell the rest of the works that this shop were a set of cissies? That you didn’t have the spunk? | |
| Faggots 201: Feeling very sorry for himself, [...] and for his lack of spunk and future. | |
| (con. 1964–73) Bloods (1985) 41: He put the spunk back into Taylor. Davis could intimidate you into not dying. | |
| Yes We Have No 334: The Party was full of spunk, not yet split by internal wars. | |
| Tuff 61: At one time Inez had admired the Bonillas’ spunk; at least the boys tried to stand up to Winston’s bullying. | |
| ‘Story of O Street’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 52: They’d have gumption. or moxie, or spunk, whatever they called it. | |
| Stoning 187: He was pleased to see the kid showing his fight, his spunk, a backbone. |
2. (also spunks) in fig. use, spirit.
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 262: Whether quite sober or dead drunk, / I know, my dear, you’ve too much spunk. | |
| ‘The Lousiad’ Works (1794) I 245: Any man of spunk / Would find it a hard matter to get drunk. | |
| Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 59: [She] is very much lik’d by the beaux esprits of the age for her spunk, being remarkably full of Cyprian spirit. | |
| Life’s Painter 136: And as the kelter runs quite flush, Like natty shining kiddies, / To treat the coaxing, giggling brims, / With spunk let’s post our neddies. | |
| ‘Answer to Captain Morris’ in Hilaria 74: In the country we’re healthy, all vigour and spunk. | |
| Clockmaker I 220: Nothin sets up a woman’s spunk like callin her ugly. | |
| Bacchanalian Mag. 22: You’ve heard of Saucy Sall; / A lass of spunk with leering eye. | |
| Spirit of Irish Wit 118: Lady C— [...] a peeress of high spunk [...] and a dashing Equestrian. | |
| Catherine (1905) 629: You young hangdog, you – egad, yes, aha! ’pon honour, you’re a lad of spirit; some of your father’s spunk in you, hey? | |
| Killers 26: If you only had the spunk of a lobster you might roll in gold. | |
| N.-Y. After Dark 90: Young American has ‘got his spunk up’. | |
| Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories (1881) 67: ‘I’ll make him stay down, confound him,’ says the parson; for, ye see, [...] the doctor had got his spunk up. | |
| Texas Cow Boy (1950) 166: This one raised Ash’s spunk. | |
| in Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 287: She do have spunk. Oh, ’tis she’s th’ spunky wan. | |
| Confessions of a Detective 25: Having some native spunks of military genius in my composition, [I] resolved to be beforehand in the business. | |
| Ballygullion 26: Ye’ll have to ask her wi’ more spunk that that. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 59: You’ve got spunk an’ fight. I like to see it. | |
| Juno and the Paycock Act I: It’s about time you’d showed a little spunk. | |
| Child of Norman’s End (1967) 135: I’m loving you – loving you for [...] having the spunk to throw your ball over the garden wall. | |
| Runyon à la Carte 170: I say what she needs is some spunk. | |
| letter 20 Dec. in Leader (2000) 416: I think she ought to take up with some [...] American with lots of money and spunk. | |
| Teachers (1962) 96: Got some spunk, that boy. | |
| Black Players 167: Hippy Pimp has a lot of genuine charm, spunk and a disarming love of outrageousness for its own sake. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 41: All I wanted to do was devilment. To get some spunk out of me. | |
| Yes We have No 222: Work was [...] designed to suck out your spunk. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 6 Jan. 9: Loads of spunk and a few tequilas. | |
| IOL News (Western Cape) 2 Sept. 🌐 It’s Afro-jazz and pop that has been given a dash of academic spunk. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 51: Her spunk made getting this situation over hard for me. |
3. semen; thus despunk v., to facilitate ejaculation; cite 1780 is assumed to be a double entendre from sense 2.
| Correct List of the Sporting Ladies [broadsheet] Miss Al---ck, a beautiful young lady, full of spunk, and very supple in her joints. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 223: He can’t go to piss, / But the spunk with the piddle comes bubbling. | |
 | Letters from Laura & Eveline 19: His bollocks were enormously swollen, full of boiling spunk. | |
| Bagnio Misc. 21: [He] discharged a flood of warm spunk. | |
| Autobiog. of a Flea 7: When my Jacques beds down with that sallow jade, he will have no spunk left for her enjoyment. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 105: I shoot my spunk / Up an elephant’s trunk. | |
| Ulysses 517: Clean your nailless middle finger first, the cold spunk o your bully is dripping from your cockscomb. | |
| (ref. to 1868) Amer. Madam (1981) 55: I smelled of Charlie’s sweat and spunk. | |
| letter 30 Mar. in Leader (2000) 127: You’ll probably win one of these prizes and wake up one morning to find yourself famous FIND YOURSELF COVERED IN SPUNK. | |
| ‘Eskimo Nell’ in Bawdy Ballads XIV: I’m going back to the frozen North, to the land where spunk is Spunk, / Not a trickling stream of lukewarm cream – but a solid frozen chunk. | |
| ‘The Platonic Blow’ in Mills (1983) 325: His hot spunk spouted in gouts, spouted in jet after jet. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) ‘A More Vulgar Mind’ in Snatches and Lays 46: The sheets were all covered with semen, / A more vulgar mind would say spunk. | |
| Eng. Madam 43: A man who hasn’t got rid of his spunk can turn bloody nasty. [Ibid.] 103: Men are much more pleasant and considerate so long as they’re regularly despunked. | |
| Gerald’s Game (1993) 203: I think she’s seen this stuff, and now you’ve seen it, too. Man’s-stuff. Spunk. | |
| Sopranos 130So you pretend it’s spunk like!: | |
| Urban Grimshaw 32: Young girls [...] swallowing spunk and being fucked up against the walls. | |
| Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 301: Still sore about the monkey spunk. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dead Man’s Trousers [35]: The gaff smells ay bleach and old spunk. |
4. (Scot. Und.) life.
| Autobiog. 60: The other two were [...] under sentence of lag for spunk. |
5. a match; usu. in phrs. below [dial. spunk, spark, tinder, ult. dial. spunk a dried fungus used as tinder; note dial. spunks, lucifer matches].
| Oddities of London Life I 106: DEFENDANT—He's a manufacturer. MR. CHAMBERS—Of what? DEFENDANT—O spunks, ye ken—what ye ca’ here aboot, matches. | |
| Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 156: He is now a spunk-fencer, (match seller,) mostly in Essex. [Ibid.] 168: The slippery and the spunks are fenced by leary-coves all day. | |
| Morn. Advertiser (London) 23 Dec. 1/6: The City swarmed with vagrants of all kids, coster-mongers, chaunters, shoonies, spunk-fencers and the whole race of cadgers. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/1: Old Ann has gone a durrynackin with a fakement and some spunks for a blind. Old Ann has gone a-begging with a written placard and some matches for a blind. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 79: Spunks, matches. |
6. vaginal fluid.
| Rosa Fielding 69: [S]he covered our heroine’s face and half filled her mouth, with a delicious ejection of warm spunk. | |
| Art of Child-Love 123: It is not possible for a little girl of twelve years old to emit a single drop [of] spunk from her little quim [Ibid.] 153: She became convulsed and I felt her spunk ooze onto my hand that felt her. | |
| Yvonne 41: Give me your spunk, child, I shall drink your health in your delicious spendings. |
7. (Aus., also spunky) someone seen as sexually attractive, whether male or female.
| ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/5: spunky: Young female. | |
| Puberty Blues 5: It was Darren Peters — the top surfing spunk of sixth form. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 112: Just make sure they send you a young spunk and not some old lezzo. | |
| Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 123: SPUNKY — A guy or girl oozing with sex appeal. | |
| Share House Blues 47: ‘Will you skate with me, spunky?’ says the red-head a second ahead of her friend. | |
| Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 140: I was jealous. Dot was a spunk. | |
| (con. 1964-65) Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 86: [of a man] ‘Ooh, what a young spunk you are, young William’. | |
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 spunk (1) n. [...] (3) an attractive male. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. | |
| Cherry Pie [ebook] [He] was a bit of a spunk. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] Sean’s paying your rent [...] Not only that, but he’s a fucking spunk, everybody likes him [etc]. |
8. (Aus.) a brave, spirited individual.
| Godson 240: You’re a dead set genius, you big, red-headed spunk. | |
| Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] She was a spunk. Politically loony but a spunk. |
Pertaining to sex
In derivatives
(Aus.) a sexy female.
| Sydney Morn. Herald Guide 18 May 6: A couple of ravishing young spunkettes straight out of a Jane Fonda exercise video. | |
| People Sydney 30 Mar. 6/3: Profumo, a keen pants man, couldn’t resist bedding 19-year-old spunkette Christine Keeler. | |
| (ed.) Whatungarogaro in Three Plays of 90s 66: Guess he was a bit of a spunk, eh? [...] I bet you were a bit of a spunkette yaself, Mum. |
1. in the context of semen or vaginal secretions, strength, richness.
| Randiana 80: Although her cunt has not got that tenacity of grip which distinguished Lady Fanny [...] there was that general spunkiness about her final throw-oil which places her in the front rank for one of her station of life . |
2. (Aus./N.Z.) sexiness.
| Girls’ Night Out 76: That kind of spunkiness doesn’t come naturally. He must have been taking handsome lessons. | |
| Glad All Over 94: Back in the seventies, Palinthorpe was lost in a sea of overt spunkiness. |
3. see spunky adj. (1)
In compounds
1. a condom.
| Soho Whore 101: She didn’t care much for men, but she doted on their spunk [...] She really loved it. I’ve seen her turn a spunk bag inside out and lick up the spunk to the last drop. | |
| Open Door n.p.: ‘You might get somebody pregnant.’ ‘I’m not daft. I used a spunk bag’. | |
| Filth 149: Annalise [...] tensely wipes herself, even though I was wearing a spunk-bag. | |
| With No One as a Witness n.p.: He always made them use a spunk bag. | |
| asstr.org 13 Aug. 🌐 I saw he was wearing a condom (playground word was ‘spunk bag’. |
2. a general term of abuse.
| Filth 5: That spunk-bag Toal’s wrecked my fuckin day already! | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 24: How the fuck did she faw for that shifty-looking spunkbag? |
(Aus.) a sexually successfulmale.
| G’DAY! 87: Spunk bandits are always in like Flynn and never get a knock-back. |
see separate entry.
the vagina, lit. ‘matchbox’.
| Lucky Spence’s Last Advice [ballad] And gin he likes to light his Match / at your Spunk-Box, Ne'er stand to let the fumbling Wratch / een take the Pox. |
1. (Aus.) an attractive young woman, a nubile teenager.
| People (Sydney) 9 Dec. 41/1: Spunkbubble Sophie Lee has been at a bit of a loose end since Sex came grinding to a halt. The TV program, that is. |
2. a term of abuse.
| Quite Ugly One Morning 208: Right, spunk bubble, [...] open your mouth. | |
| Sexy Beast [film script] You’re the problem! You’re the fucking problem you fucking Dr White honkin’ jam-rag fucking spunk-bubble! | |
| Death You Deserve 226: Greasy, lazy, spunk-bubble, camel-breath. Chef had taken more from Malcolm Priest than he’d taken from anyone. |
1. (Aus.) a sexually attractive individual.
| Syndey Morn. Herald 19 June 43: Gee, you know, that was great. And what about that spunk bucket, Edmund! |
2. a promiscuous woman or one who is branded as such.
| Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: spunk dustbin See bucket fanny, box of assorted creams (qv). Also spunk bucket. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 364: What the fuck is that dipstick daein, aw this hassle ower a ten-a-penny wee spunk-bucket? |
(Aus.) a bed.
| Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 123: SPUNK CHARIOT — Your bed. |
a passive homosexual, one who is sodomized.
| Gutted 127: Don’t be trying to paint me as a spunk-farter, even in jest. |
a general term of abuse; lit. ‘semen-mouthed’.
| Trainspotting 255: Why let one spunk-gobbed cunt ruin your life? |
a general term of abuse, lit. a fellator.
| posting ‘I admit I was wrong’ 28 May at Morrissey-solo.com 🌐 I would ask you outside to settle this properly, but you still post anonymously, you spineless little spunk-gullet. |
the penis.
| Get Your Cock Out 96: His own gory bumhole hadn’t healed properly from the savage attack [...] but there was nothing wrong with his spunkhammer. |
a general term of abuse.
| Strip Jack 207: She married that spunk-head and started shovelling Valium because it was the only way she could cope. |
the vagina.
| at SublimeDirectory.com 🌐 ‘The most comprehensive vagina nickname list in the world!’ [...] spunk-pot, hairy doughnut, fun hatch, spasm chasm. |
(Aus. / N.Z.) a sexually attractive person.
| After Tokyo 107: Sweet sixteen and a promiscuous little spunk rat but already setting forth up the career ladder and now away overseas. | |
| Llama Parlour 12: Garry [...] was considered by my girlfriends to be a top spunk rat. | |
| Mad Cows 22: The ex-love of her life, televisual spunk rat Alexander Drake. | |
| Peepshow [ebook] Holy mother of god he was a stone cold spunkrat. |
1. the penis.
| Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 9: crescent wank v. To arrange one’s favourite jazz periodicals in a half-moon display, before kneeling down to perform a fivefinger exercise on the spunk trumpet. | |
| ‘A Day In The Life Of...’ 29 Apr. 🌐 By this point my ‘spunk trumpet’ was like a ‘horse’s handbrake’. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 118: junket trumpet The penis, in the context of its sexual employment. |
2. as an insult.
| Twitter 5 July 🌐 You incompetent, ventriloquist-dummy-faced spunktrumpet. |
Pertaining to match-selling
In compounds
(US) an ostensible match-seller, whose outwardly respectable, if impoverished profession often hides less reputable, and usu. fraudulent, pursuits.
| Vocabulum. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 79: Spunk Fakers, match sellers. |
(Aus./UK Und.) a match-seller.
| Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 156: He is now a spunk-fencer, (match seller,) mostly in Essex. | |
| Mysteries of London III 85/1: A Stranger—looked like a spunk fencer. Green king’s-man, water‘s-man, yellow fancy and yellow-man. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 100: spunk-fencer a lucifer match seller. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Spunk Fencers - Match sellers. |
In phrases
an extremely attractive person.
| Tomorrow the Accolade 28: Bill kissed her; kissed her lips and her closed eyes. ‘Tough, isn’t it? Poor little manhandled, unselfish hunk of spunk’. | |
| Between the Hills and the Sea 37: ‘The male is the one that fits into the female. Get it?’ How to clunk this lunk into a useful tool? How to convert this hunk of spunk into a smoothly functioning factor? | |
| Tharunka (Sydney) 30 Oct. 7/2: Get talking to some girl that you know (be her dog, ex, or just next door) who is with a hunk of spunk, and then with a few deft operations, you’re home again. | |
| in Gordon & Hughes (eds) Best Short Stories 1986 87: My cousin in Melbourne’s gor-geous, my cousin’s a real hunk o’ spunk, she practises telling Cass Jawkins . | |
| Wild Sweet Flowsers 181: ‘The fair-haired guy, the one next to her, that’s my brother Max. He’s really into peace, Max is.’ Alvie looks at Laura’s brother. ‘He’s a hunk of spunk, isn’t he?’ Laura stares at her. | |
| That’s Unusual 9: You’ve got the world’s biggest hunk-o’-spunk upstairs and you’re down here on your Pat Malone. | |
| Altar Ego 82: ...take-me-now-you-brute, drop-dead dreamy hunk of spunk. | |
| There Once Was a Girl 🌐 ‘Come here, you big hunk of spunk, and give your sis a hug and a kiss,’ she continued. |