Etymology Of imitative origin. Compare English bang, bounce, bump.
1
Informal To hit or strike; to collide with something.
Please let it be the cow. No such luck, The 'cow' picked up my big brass telescope and bonked me on the head with it.1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 57:
2
UK, Ambitransitive, Informal To have sexual intercourse (with).
Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge) What is a proper relationship? Louise (Lesley Sharp): Living with someone who talks to you after they've bonked ya.1993, Mike Leigh, Naked:
Because most of the blokes I fancy think l'm stupid and pointless—and, so, they just bonk me and then leave me. And the kind of blokes that do fancy me, I think are drips. I can't even be bothered to bonk them. Which does sort of leave me a bit nowhere.1994, Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoken by Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman):
1 more example
But let’s not kid ourselves about bonking for Britain: this is just “the great replacement theory” with a tax code.2022 October 10, Zoe Williams, “The Tory minister’s ‘bonking for Britain’ idea is a vile vision lurking behind cheeky Carry On imagery”, in The Guardian:
Hobbies, Lifestyle, SportsInformal To experience sudden and severe fatigue in an endurance sports event due to glycogen depletion.
I had eaten five of my six PowerBars. I was exhausted and famished. In cycling they describe what was happening to me as bonking: my body was out of fuel and had no more energy.2004, Gary Erickson, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Raising the Bar, Jossey-Bass, →ISBN, page 29:
“[…] It’s not like I’m just looking for a bonk, is it? This is something a bit different.” ¶ “Quite,” said Nick—though bonk was a troublingly casual way of referring to something which preoccupied him so much.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
4
Informal A condition of sudden, severe fatigue in an endurance sports event caused by glycogen depletion.
5
An animal call resembling "bonk", such as the call of the pobblebonk.