Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hunk adj.

(US) satisfactory, fine.

1846		Brooklyn Eve. Star 21 Feb. 2/2: In two minutes he leaves the winds behind him and gets ‘hunk’ several hours before his competitor.
1856		G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 141: You are here – you pay your shilling at the door – and you are ‘hunk’.
1865		H.L. Williams Joaquin 42: I’m hunk. Of course I ain’t hit.
1870		C.G. Leland ‘Breitmann’s Going to Church’ in Hans Breitmann in Church 111: I’fe heard of miragles pefore, / Boot none so hunk ash dis.
1897		Lafayette Gaz. (LA) 26 June 2/3: And so, instead of being hunk, / He got the rinky-dink.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 181: ‘Do you approve my proposition?’ [...] ‘The proposition’s all hunk.’.
1930		(con. 1865) H. Asbury Ye Olde Fire Laddies 92: I was a jolly runner bold, / When runners were all hunk.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.

In compounds

get hunk (to) (v.)

to understand, to ‘get wise’.

1912		Day Book (Chicago) 16 Feb. n.p.: The people are getting hunk to politics, and the business men have got to organize and prevent ’em getting too hunk.
1945		New Yorker 21:5 23: Maybe Superman ought to get hunk to a big romance.

In phrases

get hunk (with) (v.)

(US) to get even with.

1842		Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 5 Nov. 421: Being [...] an opportunity to ‘get hunk’ out of Miss Bunk [HDAS].
1855		Yankee Notions 4 362: I want your assistance to get ' hunk' on one of the handsomest pieces of horse flesh ever buckled to a sulky.
1888		World (N.Y.) 26 Apr. 3/3: It is hoped that the home team will get ‘beautifully hunk’ on the visitors.
1898		World (N.Y.) 5 June 9/6: [headline] How the Hook Gang ‘Got Hunk’ with Dwyer.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 231: I s’pose he lose a coupla bets, an’ done this to git hunk. [Ibid.] 262: He was to descend upon his life partner and ‘get hunk,’ [...] for the myriad indignities he had suffered.
1917		Van Loan ‘Playing Even with Obadiah’ in Old Man Curry 66: That’s what I call getting hunk with a vengeance.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 312: Sometimes with no more definite purpose than a lark, but usually as a means of ‘getting hunk’ with some well-to-do but hated rancher.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 110: We wipe ’em out an’ we get hunk for Kinky an’ we cop their territory.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 11 Nov. [synd. col.] The place to make the Japs the heavies is in the newsreels, especially if it also shows the heroes gettng hunk.
1949		Boston Globe 12 June 2/4: Suppose I show you how to get hunk with the cheapskates? [DA].
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 76: This means a lot more to me than getting hunk for a badge-happy kid.
1963		J. Dugan Amer. Viking 195: In the old days when someone wanted to do you wrong, or get hunk with you, he punched you in the nose.
1972		G. Green Block Buster 273: We still want to see if we can get hunk with him.

go hunks (v.)

(US) to take equal shares.

1892

Campbell, Knox & Byrnes Darkness and Daylight in N.Y. 163: We’ll go hunks, an’ whatever I have you shall have the same.