Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lunk n.

1. a fool.

1867		Harper’s Weekly 25 May n.p.: You thick-headed lunk [R].
1933		B. Ross Tragedy of Z 49: Kenyon bawled at his men: ‘Any o’ you lunks been at the desk?’.
1942		H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 46: He tells Sid and me that we’re a pair of lunks.
1950		P. Highsmith Strangers on a Train (1974) 41: Long Island ... In New York, lunk, ever hear of it?
1965		S. Yurick Warriors (1966) 21: Lunkface, short-tempered and stupid, kept stiffening.
1978		D. DeLillo Running Dog (1992) 220: There’s just that old lunk, the art dealer.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 66: It turned out that we were just a couple of wistful lunks.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 159: Schenck, the lunk, thought he could play to Zukor’s sympathies.

2. an oaf, an ungainly person.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 267 : I want to beat Lennert. I just want to see if I can do it with this lunk.
1954		J.D. MacDonald All These Condemned (2001) 134: The big lunk just stared at me.
1991		Desperate Dan Special No. 7 21: Take those boots off, you big lunk!
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 101: Drummond couldn’t understand why Z had insisted on bringing the big fucking beaner lunk along.
2013		Guardian On Line 24 Aug. 🌐 A lunk in an ice hockey shirt with ‘Cannabis’ on the back.
2023		Twitter/X 11 Nov. 🌐 Make no mistake: these guys are coked up lunks spoiling for a fight.

In derivatives

lunky (adj.)

stupid.

1942		in ATS.
1986		Chapman NDAS.
2000		Jim Provenzano ‘The Clue Train’ Bay Area Reporter 13 Jan. 🌐 On the floor of the train car was a newspaper with the face of a big lunky baseball player on it.