Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hunk adj.

[SAmE hunk, in a safe or good position or condition, all right; ult. E.Fris. hunk, corner, nook, retreat, home in a game; thus SE adv. hunk, in a safe position, all right]

(US) satisfactory, fine.

Brooklyn Eve. Star 21 Feb. 2/2: In two minutes he leaves the winds behind him and gets ‘hunk’ several hours before his competitor.
[US]G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 141: You are here – you pay your shilling at the door – and you are ‘hunk’.
[US]H.L. Williams Joaquin 42: I’m hunk. Of course I ain’t hit.
[US]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.
[US]Lafayette Gaz. (LA) 26 June 2/3: And so, instead of being hunk, / He got the rinky-dink.
[US]A.H. Lewis Boss 181: ‘Do you approve my proposition?’ [...] ‘The proposition’s all hunk.’.
[US](con. 1865) H. Asbury Ye Olde Fire Laddies 92: I was a jolly runner bold, / When runners were all hunk.
[US]Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.

In compounds

get hunk (to) (v.)

to understand, to ‘get wise’.

[US]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.
[US]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.

[US]Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 5 Nov. 421: Being [...] an opportunity to ‘get hunk’ out of Miss Bunk [HDAS].
[US]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.
[US]World (N.Y.) 26 Apr. 3/3: It is hoped that the home team will get ‘beautifully hunk’ on the visitors.
[US]World (N.Y.) 5 June 9/6: [headline] How the Hook Gang ‘Got Hunk’ with Dwyer.
[US]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.
[US]Van Loan ‘Playing Even with Obadiah’ in Old Man Curry 66: That’s what I call getting hunk with a vengeance.
[US]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.
[US]J. Lait Put on the Spot 110: We wipe ’em out an’ we get hunk for Kinky an’ we cop their territory.
[US]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.
[US]Boston Globe 12 June 2/4: Suppose I show you how to get hunk with the cheapskates? [DA].
[US]‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 76: This means a lot more to me than getting hunk for a badge-happy kid.
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.
G. Green Block Buster 273: We still want to see if we can get hunk with him.