gunk, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gunk n.²

[orig. a proprietary name patented in 1932 by A.F. Curran Co. for ‘liquid soaps and liquid cleaners for hard surfaced materials or articles’]

1. (orig. US) a viscous or liquid substance.

1938		in Conklin Science Fiction Omnibus 11: Oliveira got a bunch of hairless Chihuahua dogs and tried assorted gunks on them [HDAS].
1946		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 108: The ship was sunk / In a wave of gunk / From mutual masturbation.
1959		‘Gator (U. Fla.) Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 154: ‘Ho, Babe, where’ya going?’ It may be to gunk class (organic chemistry) to learn to be a gunk and goo chemist.
1971		F. Hilaire Thanatos 64: A gummy mess of bubbling yellow gunk.
1979		‘Lang. of Nursing’ AS LIV:1 37: A patient [...] who may fill up with ‘accumulate’ gunk ‘greenish secretions’.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 223: ‘What is it?’ ‘. . . Gunk!’.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 355: That gunk you pump in flat tires to keep you rolling.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 117: Murray’s pomade, the thick yellow gunk some blacks used in their hair.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 49: Sonny starts squirting the sickly gunk over his back.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 55: There was a wedge of soft grey gunk caught in the hairs at his left nostril.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 84: Murray drank from a little bottle of chocolate gunk.

2. semen.

2009

R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 42: Ellen feels shitty cleaning all his gunk out of herself for nothing.

gunk up (v.)

(orig. US) to mess up with viscous or liquid substances.

1961		R. Granat Important Thing 157: Goddam gun goes right in the [...] mud, gets all gunked up with crap.
1984		‘W.T. Tyler’ Shadow Cabinet 192: All gunked up with tar and oil.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 188: I got up, and showered and washed the gunked-up blood and bile and brain matter from my face.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 178: Those two were just the flies who buzzed in and gunked up the ointment.