Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also funck, funk on) to act in a cowardly manner, to flinch or shrink through fear; to worry.

1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 155: Whilst Troy’s bold sons with shouts get drunk, / The conquer’d Grecians sweat and funk.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 446: We funk’d a little, faith and troth.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: funk to smoke, figuratively to smoke or stink through fear.
c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: We saw de poor Fellow was funking, / De Drizzle stole down from his Eye.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		Morn. Post (London) 26 Dec. 3/5: Josh. went limping to the scratch and hit away under great disadvantages, but he was too good to funck.
1827		Australian (Sydney) 4 July 3/3: It was called a good ‘floorer’. The friends of Glew seemed to breathe again, but no ‘funking’ on the other side.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) I 217: If I had done for all the corn-threshers (farmers) whom I have only singed, I should have nothing to funk about now.
1838		W.N. Glascock Land Sharks and Sea Gulls I 128: I’m none o’ your chicken-hearted, heave-quick sort o’ chaps as frets and funks at every hidden danger.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 110: To funk right out of p’lit’cal strife aint thought to be the thing.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 294: Perhaps we’re only funking ourselves useless, and it mayn’t be the farms chaps at all.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 45: It ’ud make you funk so, that you’d be afeared to shut your eyes when you went to bed.
1870		Home News for India (supp.) 3 June 35/2: Sorry I could not join you. I was late at office, and then had to see the doctor. I begin to ‘funk’ about Thursday .
1879		Besant & Rice ‘The Seamy Side’ in Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) Nov. 407: He always turns up again, and always pretending to smile, and always funking something.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 144: After funking about the pox and clap for a few days, I spend one evening to try to get her again.
1895		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 4 Sept. 2/7: The Euston shed challenged us, but funked at the last moment.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 127: Don’t you fink I funked the job.
1903		J. London People of the Abyss 56: Don’t funk; you can do it.
1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 15 Dec. 12/1: ‘I funked his bringing the cove here, but he laughed, told to cheese my patter, and went out’.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 12 July 1/1: Though the former has been practising [...] he funks the flutter.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 11/4: Angelina: ‘Oh, Edwin, this is so sudden!’ / Edwin (funking on it): ‘Quite a misunderstanding, I assure you. M-merely wanted to know if it was time to go.’.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 196: ‘She may be a blighter in some things, but she doesn’t funk!’.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 50: He was a man who never let a pal down, a man who never ‘funked’.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 207: I feel as if it’d be funking not to go through ... like I always done.
1938		W. Watson Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2000) 220: I banked on the fact that Nick would funk it.
1949		P. Pringle Boy’s Book of Cricket 103: He had some reason to believe Tony a coward [...] for by funking fast bowling Tony had helped to give Conway the victory.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 167: Other variations, chiefly British, include [...] funk it, which is to panic and shrink away from something or to fail, or flunk, usually an exam in school.
1995		P. Boland Tales from a City Farmyard 23: To ‘funk’ the bull and go around the safer way was a disgrace.

2. (also funkify) to frighten or scare someone.

1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 134: He might have knowed how to feel for other folks, and not funkify them so peskily.
1853		H. Hayman Pawnbroker’s Daughter 80: I’ll bet you an even sovereign Jem Sloucher’s got a rat that’ll funk Snobby [a dog].
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 111: What do want to funk him for?
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 250: You won’t funk me by talking about ends.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) III 471: The day after I saw Kitty walking by herself, that funked me again, so I cut away without her seeing me.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 31: Funked, feared.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 4 Mar. 363: If we don’t funk him I don’t think he can do so much harm as we imagined.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 176: Thorne’s funking you – that’s a sure thing!

3. (UK Und.) to cheat.

1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Funk to cheat.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 14: Funk – to cheat.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

4. to try to back out of anything, to fight shy of, to wish or try to shirk or evade (an undertaking, duty etc), to get scared in a situation.

1818		Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl 8 June 3: Back he comes, and fills his platter and his glass, and then funks it, and asks pardon of old Titus.
1827		The author of The Cigar Every Night Book: Advice to Tommy n.p.: Do not go out of your depth, unless you have available assistance at hand, in case you should funk [F&H].
1829		‘Lag’s Lament’ (trans. of an untitled cant poem) in Vidocq (1829) IV 264: Jolly vas I, for I feared no evil, / Funked at nought, and pitched care to the devil.
1844		Essex Standard 8 Nov. 2/4: Though, at the present moment, he was funking, he had not had [etc.].
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 241: ‘He’s funking; go in Williams,’ ‘Catch him up,’ ‘Finish him off,’ scream the small boys of the Slogger party.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 187: Four men who had, to use a vulgar expression, ‘funked’ following the valiant scoundrel.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 603: Funk, to, and to funkify [...] are both in America used to express backing out from great fear, very much in the same way as to flunk. The metaphor is taken from the meaning of ‘smoking out,’ which is given to funking in the North of England – funk being a provincial name for a small, smoking fire, etymologically connected with the German Funke.
1883		T.B. Reed Willoughby Captains (1887) 230: ‘Try it on, that’s all! You don’t think we funk you!’.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 14/2: [E]vidence incriminating certain leading bookmakers was ready to be laid before the committee [...], when Fordham funked making an admission of having been incapable on the eve of an important engagement, and preferred to let his thousands go.
1895–9		H. Lawson ‘The Story of the Oracle’ in Roderick (1972) 281: After a few rounds Redmond funked and wanted to give in.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 3 Aug. 692: You funk the fight, I suppose?
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 220: Does your heart fail you, my little Dutchman? You funk the English?
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 138: They’ll say you funked your master, if you don’t go up to Mr. Fillet’s study; I shall say you funked the boys, if you don’t go out to them. You must choose between their contempt and mine.
1934		E. Raymond Child of Norman’s End (1967) 257: The man sets out to be perfectly frank and free, but he funks it at the last.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 37: Nick hasn’t told his guardians about it [...] He funked it.
1957		‘Neville Shute’ On the Beach 156: The spare [...] I suppose they give it to you in case you lose one of them, or funk it.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 88: All of us funked it except Mick.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 160: I funk Women’s Lib.
1982		(con. 1970s) P. Bailey An Eng. Madam 115: I funked the whole issue and tended to take my pleasures by myself.
1999		C. Logue Prince Charming 291: You really must. If only to avoid the charge that you funked it.

5. to worry about.

1833

‘The Juniper Bough’ in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 13: Then Robert appear’d and the kiddies cried — / ‘See how Robert funks for his lushy bride!’.

6. to fear, to be afraid of someone.

1873		Siliad 24: Both factions praised my prowess, funked my might; / And with soft sawder strove my aid to gain.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly III 50: Eton boys no longer fight, because they funk one another.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 3 June 562: Not because I funk meeting them.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 234: The old woman used to funk the tide something cruel. Guess she’ll be scared out of her skin, to-night!