Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A trip or tour, especially.
  • noun One taken by an official at public expense.
  • noun One taken by a person who is the guest of a business or agency seeking favor or patronage.
  • noun A party, banquet, or outing.
  • noun A dessert made from flavored milk and rennet.
  • intransitive verb To go on a junket.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Curds mixed with cream, sweetened, and flavored.
  • noun Hence Any sweetmeat or delicacy.
  • noun A feast or merrymaking; a convivial entertainment; a picnic.
  • To feast; banquet; take part in a convivial entertainment.
  • To entertain; feast; regale.
  • noun Milk artificially coagulated with rennet.
  • noun A basket made of rushes.
  • noun A long basket for catching fish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To give entertainment to; to feast.
  • noun A cheese cake; a sweetmeat; any delicate food.
  • noun A feast; an entertainment.
  • noun A trip made at the expense of an organization of which the traveller is an official, ostensibly to obtain information relevant to one's duties; especially, a trip made by a public official at government expense. The term is sometimes used opprobriously, from a belief that such trips are often taken for private pleasure, and are therefore a waste of public money.
  • intransitive verb To feast; to banquet; to make an entertainment; -- sometimes applied opprobriously to feasting by public officers at the public cost.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A basket.
  • noun A type of cream cheese, originally made in a rush basket; later, a food made of sweetened curds or rennet.
  • noun A feast or banquet.
  • noun A pleasure-trip; a journey made for feasting or enjoyment, now especially a trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment.
  • noun gaming 20-40 table gaming rooms for which the capacity and limits change daily. Junket rooms are often rented out to private vendors who run tour groups through them and give a portion of the proceeds to the main casino.
  • verb To go on or attend a junket.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb provide a feast or banquet for
  • noun a trip taken by an official at public expense
  • verb go on a pleasure trip
  • noun dessert made of sweetened milk coagulated with rennet
  • verb partake in a feast or banquet
  • noun a journey taken for pleasure

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English jonket, rush basket, preparation of cream or milk served on rushes, feast; akin to modern French dialectal (Normandy) jonquette, a kind of dessert made with boiled milk and French jonchée, container made of rushes for draining soft cheeses, soft cheese made in such a container, all untimately from Latin iuncus, rush.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Today the bards must drink and junket.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 1

    December 29, 2006

  • I think I've only heard this word preceding "press".

    December 29, 2006

  • also, a dessert

    September 26, 2007

  • My grandmother used to make junket for dessert. It was kind of gross, like runny pudding.

    February 6, 2008

  • Is it like blancmange?

    February 6, 2008