Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. slang Term used, primarily by US immigration officials in informal settings, to describe an illegal immigrant of any country.
- n. slang An item of value, or of perceived value, especially for sale
Etymologies
- Origins are unknown, but definitely predate the use of metal flashlights, contrary to the most quoted description of origin. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“My God! I don't think I have ever seen "tonk" spelled out.”
Veiled Charges Of Racism Fly In Race For ... Republican National Committee Chair?
“So when he takes honky-tonk style, for example, he pushes its virtuosity to the highest degree.”
“Navy, singing six nights a week in a honky-tonk band, selling cars, building houses, managing a coffee house, and half a dozen other jobs.”
“The gorgeous honky-tonk ballad would have made Patsy Cline proud, but it has never cracked the Hot 100 on Skid Row.”
The Washington Post: Music where they live: Singer Mary McBride's unconventional tour
“Lots of people have made their careers on this sort of tonk, how do you make them give it up in the face of (shock horror) having to do real policework ..?”
“But if you'd rather stay warm, Billy Bob's is a couple of blocks over and calls itself the world's biggest honky tonk.”
The Huffington Post: Dallas Preps For Influx Of Visitors For February Super Bowl
“+ Thurs Jul thirty Doc Marshalls With influences ranging from traditionalists like Buck Owens as well as Johnny Cash to innovators like Gram Parsons as well as Dwight Yoakam, this Brooklyn-based rope delivers an honest, unflinching honky tonk receptive to advice with a raucous set of Cajun as well as Zydeco thrown in for good measure.”
“A week's worth of boot shopping, honky-tonk dancing and pork-belly-slider tasting packed into just three days.”
“Just down the street is one of the last honky-tonk dance halls in the state, The Broken Spoke 3201 S.”
“They're going to properly tonk someone soon but it may not be Wigan, as Henderson shoots straight Al Habsi after a fine build-up.8.11pm: Chaos in the Liverpool box as they fail to deal with a clipped corss into the box.”
The Guardian: Premier League clockwatch – as it happened | Paul Doyle
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tonk’.
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cricket
everything cricket
backlift, bail, batsman, batsmen, batswoman, batswomen, beamer, blockhole, bodyline, bosie, bouncer, boundary and 471 more...
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Onk-tastic
Words containing the sound /ŏngk/.
Algonquin, Cronkite, Tonka, Tonkin, Wonka, Yonkers, bonk, bonkers, bronco, broncobuster, conk, conker and 53 more...
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i don't like cricket, i love it
Words without which cricket could not be.
keeper, stumper, bad light stopped..., wicket keeper, rain stopped play, sight screen, bodyline, leg bye, duck, duckworth-lewis, t20, one-day game and 245 more...
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Nightmare Alley
From the novel by William Lindsay Gresham
geek, mark, rubber, calliope, booze-fool, rummy, the horrors, the crawling snakes, equalizer, bubbies, grubstake, softshoe and 99 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
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Team Waste
wastegash, minor, minotaur, sick, ......... game on..., bare, man, gash, all about ......, allow, sicko, standard and 31 more...
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Jazz
discoveries and oddities in Toni Morrison's Jazz (1992)
marcelling, kitty, fay, winterbound, slappable, tiptoer, dracena, doctor plant, deep-down, tonk, suds, citified and 21 more...
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Four letter verbs
oust, hump, tonk, luff, girn, risp, dunk, cull, oink, purl, rort, bilk and 1 more...
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Distinctly British
Mostly but not limited to slang and some cockney guffy wibble
haberdashery, coventry, knackered, cack-handed, bate, bimble, blag, boffin, bonce, brolly, busk, cack and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tonk.
yarb 'Mist hung over the hills beyond the town, and from a slope rising from the other side of the road came the gentle tonk of a cowbell.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham Jul 1, 2012