Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to escape, to run off (under pressure).

1842		Egan ‘The Bridle Cull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 139: ‘I’ll not rob you,’ said he, ‘and so you needn’t bunk;’ / But she lammas’d off in style, of his pop-gun afunk.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1871–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1872		‘Oh, we are a getting on’ [broadside ballad] There’s another bald-headed Manager, Has bunked across to Spain [F&H].
1887		Fun 9 Nov. 201: ‘What is a vanishing point?’ said the schoolmaster to little Billy. ‘The corner you bunks round when the ‘slops’ after yer,’ warbled the golden-headed child [F&H].
1898		Kipling ‘Stalky’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 14: Where’ll they bunk to if they have to run for it?
1909		Gem 6 Feb. 15: Then he’s as likely as not to bunk, and leave Northwood.
1910		E. Rosen In the Foreign Legion 11: ‘If they don't treat me with proper respect, I’ll be compelled to leave them again. On French leave! Scoot, skin out, bunk it see?’.
1911		Gem 25 Nov. 6: ‘Better bunk!’ whispered Manners.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: bunk. Abscond, or ‘do a bunk’.
1929		Kipling ‘Satisfaction of a Gentleman’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 249: ‘Bunk!’ Stalky warned him. ‘Run, you ass!’.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 411: The people rush out to see what it is [...] but we have already bunked.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 141: Bunk it if yer have to, but just fuckin disappear.
2017		Spitalfields Life 16 Oct. 🌐 [T]here was, until recently, a patch of these alleys in the Roman Rd area which was called by the locals ‘the bunk’ because it provided an avenue of escape from the police.

2. (also bunt out, bunky-doodle) to leave, to be off (of one’s own volition).

1885		Referee 16 Feb. 7/3: It was just such a parcel [...] he’d bunked with out o’ the building [F&H].
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 26 Oct. 6/4: ‘Let me go, and I’ll bunk’.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 156: Mr. Jarvis and me have had enough of your rough-house society to last us a time and a half. Now bunky-doodle!
1907		Gem 30 Mar. 14: Bunk, Tom!
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 76: ‘I bunked downstairs into the cabing’.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 162: He said awful things about Thorne when Creeping Jesus had bunked.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 278: Any one wot tries to bunk out the door gets donged.
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 59: ‘Bunk,’ he said softly. ‘Wasting your time, Stevie.’.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 31: Where’s your money? / In my pocket. / Where’s your pocket? / I ain’t got it. / Well, out you bunk.
1965		(con. 1930s) N. Hilliard Power of Joy 230: Flogging a bike to bunk to the flicks.
1999		Guardian G2 12 Aug. 8: On Friday afternoons I used to bunk off and go to a club.

3. to force someone to leave.

1908		Gem 17 Oct. 13: ‘I don’t want to bunk.’ [...] ‘Then we’ll jolly well bunk you.’.
1970		B. Aldiss Hand-Reared Boy 168: I reckon she got bunked [...] I reckon the Head found out what she was up to.

4. to rush.

1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 8 Dec. 12/1: ‘[I]t won’t take us a jiffy to bunk over to the back and give the office to the Badger’.
1920		Film Fun 24 Apr. 20: They bunked in with the speed of the young policeman after a rabbit pie.
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 147: I bunked smack into Romolo.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 46: And being pushed about, jostled, that happens all the time too—a guy is rushing for a bus and bunks into—.