conk - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Variant or figurative use of conch. Attested since the nineteenth century.[1]

conk (plural conks)

Bracket fungus on a fallen tree trunk

  1. The shelf- or bracket-shaped fruiting body of a bracket fungus (also called a shelf fungus), i.e. a mushroom growing off a tree trunk.
  2. (slang) A nose, especially a large one.
  3. Alternative spelling of conch.

in mycology: the shelf- or bracket-shaped fruiting body of a Bracket fungus

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

  1. (slang) To hit, especially on the head.
    • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
      She came skipping to me just now, clapping her little hands and bleating about how very, very happy she was, dear Mrs Travers. The silly young geezer. I nearly conked her one with my trowel. I'd always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn't even put her in the oven.

slang: to hit

From congolene, the brand name of a hair-straightening product.

Singer Nat King Cole in 1956 with his hair conked

conk (plural conks)

  1. (US, dated) A hairstyle involving the chemical straightening and styling of kinky hair.

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

  1. (US, dated) To chemically straighten tightly curled hair.
    • 1957, James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”, in Going to Meet the Man‎[1], Dial, published 1965:
      The barbecue cook, wearing a dirty white apron, his conked hair reddish and metallic in the pale sun, and a cigarette between his lips, stood in the doorway, watching them.

to chemically straighten tightly curled hair

Unknown. Attested since the early twentieth century.

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

  1. (colloquial, often with out) To fail or show signs of failing, cease operating, break down.
    • 1921, Australian Aero Clubs, Sea, Land and Air, volume 3, page 310:
      Therefore, have two or more engines, so that there is still some power left if one engine conks.
    • 1983, Walli Leff, Marilyn Haft, Time without Work, page 93:
      I watch television when it's playing, but it done conked out. Everything is conked out.
  2. (colloquial, often with out) To become unconscious.

to cease operating, break down

to become unconscious

  1. ^ “conk”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.