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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Frightened; panicky.
  2. adj. Having a moldy or musty smell: funky cheese; funky cellars.
  3. adj. Having a strong, offensive, unwashed odor.
  4. adj. Music Of or relating to music that has an earthy quality reminiscent of the blues.
  5. adj. Music Combining elements of jazz, blues, and soul and characterized by syncopated rhythm and a heavy, repetitive bass line.
  6. adj. Slang Earthy and uncomplicated; natural: "At the opposite end of Dallas's culinary spectrum is funky regional fare” ( Jacqueline Friedrich).
  7. adj. Slang Characterized by originality and modishness; unconventional: "a bizarre, funky [hotel ] dressed up as a ship, with mock portholes and mirrored ceilings over the beds” ( Ann Louise Bardach).
  8. adj. Slang Outlandishly vulgar or eccentric in a humorous or tongue-in-cheek manner; campy: "funky caricatures of sexpot glamour” ( Pauline Kael).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Timid; shrinking in fear.
  2. Kicking; given to kicking, as a horse.
  3. Easily angered; touchy.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. offbeat, unconventional or eccentric.
  2. adj. Not quite right; of questionable quality; not appropriate to the context.
  3. adj. Of or pertaining to the smell of funk.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Pertaining to, or characterized by, great fear, or funking; having great fear.
  2. n. having an earthy, unsophisticated style or feeling earthy and seemingly unsophisticated, having elements of black American blues and gospel. See 2nd funk, n.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. offensively malodorous
  2. adj. in a state of cowardly fright
  3. adj. (of jazz) having the soulful feeling of early blues
  4. adj. stylish and modern in an unconventional way

Etymologies

  1. From funk, strong smell, tobacco smoke, perhaps from French dialectal funquer, to give off smoke, from Old French fungier, from Latin fūmigāre; see fumigate.

Examples

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Lists

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‘funky’ has been looked up 1642 times, added to 38 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 15.