Definitions

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

  • noun The raucous, resonant sound characteristic of a wild goose.
  • noun A sound similar to a goose's honk.
  • noun The blaring sound of the horn on a motor vehicle.
  • intransitive verb To emit a honk.
  • intransitive verb To cause (a horn) to produce a honk.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To emit the cry of the wild goose.
  • noun The cry of the wild goose.

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

  • noun To make a sound like the honk of a goose.
  • noun To sound the horn on an automobile or other motor vehicle.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The cry of a wild goose.

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

  • verb transitive, intransitive To use a car horn.
  • verb intransitive To make a sound like a car horn.
  • verb intransitive To make the sound of a goose.
  • verb informal To vomit: regurgitate the contents of one's stomach.
  • noun The sound produced by a typical car horn.
  • noun The cry of a goose.
  • interjection Imitation of car horn, used, for example, to clear a path for oneself.

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

  • verb use the horn of a car
  • verb eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth
  • noun the cry of a goose (or any sound resembling this)
  • verb cry like a goose
  • verb make a loud noise

Etymologies

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

[Imitative.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

(onomatopoeia)

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Examples

  • _Honk, honk, honk_, cried the old Wild Goose, from the sheltered marsh where he did not know what was going on.

    Tell Me Another Story The Book of Story Programs Carolyn Sherwin Bailey 1918

  • She listened, but she did not hear his _honk, honk, honk_!

    Tell Me Another Story The Book of Story Programs Carolyn Sherwin Bailey 1918

  • * honk honk*. .and who the ***** invited the word "tween"!?

    digg.com: Stories / Popular 2009

  • She stood on the street for what we call a honk and wave.

    CNN Transcript Jan 9, 2008 2008

  • But his honk was the anomaly, "shave and a haircut" from his LTD about half a block away meant to let his wife know he was pulling into the driveway soon.

    Minnesota Premier Publications - Southwest Journal Stories 2010

  • The cheese gives off the kind of honk that the cartoonists from the Beano indicate with wavy green lines, fainting dentists and gasping kids with pegs on their noses.

    Cheese Sam Jordison 2005

  • The cheese gives off the kind of honk that the cartoonists from the Beano indicate with wavy green lines, fainting dentists and gasping kids with pegs on their noses.

    Archive 2005-09-01 Sam Jordison 2005

  • Kurt Vonnegut called it a "honk"; it was thought to be "British."

    The Last Gentleman 2003

  • It gave a couple of shrill squeaks which were answered by a noncommittal "honk" from one of the adults.

    The Sands of Mars Clarke, Arthur C. 1951

  • "He can hit his bird on the wing every time, and he can 'honk' so's to fool any goose alive, and find the best blinds of anybody 'longshore."

    Sara, a Princess Fannie E. Newberry

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