punky adj.
1. (US) cowardly, weak; second-rate [punk n.1 (9)].
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Eve. Herald (Shenandoah, PA) 10 May 1/3: Of all the punky hitters that come from Punky town / The Huns from Shenandoah are the brownest of the brown. | |
| Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 7 Aug. 1/3: [headline] Republican Frere Homes Celebration a Very Punky Failure. | |
| Brownsville Dly Herald (TX) 30 Nov. 1/3: On telling Mrs John Jacob Astor that she ‘looked punky with a white rose’, and recommending a red one, he was made her private secretary. | |
 | Coshocton Dly Times (OH) 27 Aug. 8/7: Why, hadn’t he lived Here since ’84 and found that the Place was punky? Sure, Mike! | |
| N.Y. Tribune 16 Jan. 6/2: One of those husky barytones, like what does the coonsongs for the punky records they put on the music boxes at thepenny arcades. | |
| New Ulm Rev. (Brown Co., MN) 2 Apr. 4/2: A rather startling assemblage of short and ugly words but they are at least in refreshing contrast to the punky stuff, pious and other, that we hear so often. | |
| Duke 11: Who wants to wear your punky jacket? | |
| Tomboy (1952) 55: The punk [...] He’s punkier than the girls. | |
| Mad mag. May 6: A rickety ol’ flat-boat wif a punky name on the side. | |
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 65: We would bully some punky guy and make him say that he did it. | |
| Caldo Largo (1980) 46: I’ll still dream those bad dreams and feel as punky and rotten and unforgiven as ever. | |
| Chili 25: My situation was rank punky, to say the least. | |
| All the Right Stuff 35: ‘I’m stronger than your little punky butt!’. |
2. broken, malfunctioning.
| Shorty McCabe 40: We hove in sight of that punky castle. [Ibid.] 122: We used a box of matches locating that punky grinder. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 13 Nov. 25: The law cannot deal too drastically with the large number of punky death-traps. |
3. out of condition, unhealthy.
| Ranche & Range (N. Yakima, WA) 23 Feb. 16/2: I don’t think it is a profitable tree to plant from the fact that it is a large puinky apple and a poor keeper. | |
| Side-stepping with Shorty 16: Fletcher is short winded and soft [...] Inside of ten minutes he knows just how punky he is himself. |
4. (US) strong and unpleasant.
| It (1987) 959: Ben drew in a dismayed gasp and smelled something hot and punky and wild. |