funk out

verb — 3 senses

funk out

verb
1

Dated, Dialectal To back out in a cowardly way; to chicken out.

  • to funk right out o' p'lit'cal strife1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:
  • “What! why not? what's the meaning of this? are you funking out of it? You're all a set of cowards.”1887, Frederick Whsihaw (translator), Fyodor Dostoevsky (original), The Gambler:
2

To malfunction.

  • “I don't know; we've lost line-of-sight, and I think my com is funking out, too. Maybe the static discharge shorted it out. We're gonna have to backtrack and find everybody.”2012, W. G. Marshall, Enormity:
  • Jack did not like it when his technology funked out, but with forty-three Marines keeping careful watch, he could at least search with the Mark I eyeball.2013, Mark Shepherd, Kris Longknife: Defender:
3

To rock out to funk music.

  • Maupin shines, particularly at 4:48 where he funks out, completely eschewing the tempo and expanding the palette of the band.2018, Eric Wendell, Experiencing Herbie Hancock: A Listener's Companion:
  • Dancing, energized, smiling at Wes, who was dressed to the nines with his cuffs rolled and slacks ironed, funking out to the tunes.2022, Kelly Siskind, The Beat Match:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.