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tonk

noun, intj, verb and 1 more — 10 senses

tonk

nounalso spelled Tonk

Etymology Origins are unknown, but definitely predate the use of metal flashlights, contrary to the most quoted description of origin. It is probable that the origin relates to Chinese immigration, as the first law to restrict immigration from a particular country was enacted in 1882 to limit the numbers of Chinese coming to the United States. It is said that many of the illegal immigrants made their way to the US via the Gulf of Tonkin area of what is now Vietnam. It is also possible that the term is related to the Chinese "tong" mob.

1

US, Derogatory, Slang An illegal immigrant of any country.

  • 1990: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee - An agent, Larry Moy, when asked to define the derivation of the term “tonk,” replied: “...it's the sound of flashlight hitting somebody's head, tonk". [This "derivation" is incorrect - see Etymology]
  • 1998: Cirenio Rodriguez & Enrique T Trueba, Leadership, education and political action, in Ethnic Identity and Power: Cultural Contexts of Political Action in School and Society - "Catch as many tonks as you guys can. Safely. An alien is not worth busting a leg."
1 more example
  • 2005: EMF (poster on The QandO Blog in response to Illegal immigration made easy, read at https://web.archive.org/web/20060528001651/http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=789 on 27 May 2006) - The pissed off Arizona land owner who snipes the tonks with a high powered rifle.

tonk

intj

Etymology Onomatopoeic.

1

Representing a sound produced by knocking on something hollow.

  • In one of those stampings into the yard he suddenly rushed at the tank and tapped it. Tonk, tonk, tonk, tab. One rung left. Only one rung; about a week's supply of water.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 153:

tonk

verb

Etymology Onomatopoeic.

1

Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Colloquial To knock or strike (a ball) so that it flies through the air.

  • Then your dad would step up and spend 45 minutes repeatedly tonking the ball over the shower block […]2012, Iain Macintosh, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cricket But Were Too Afraid to Ask:
  • Moments later, Sehwag tonked the ball and it travelled some distance.2014, Makarand Waingankar, Guts & Glory:

tonk

adj
1

UK, Slang Big, muscular, massive.

  • In this new paradigm of masculine excellence, anyone can achieve physical perfection if they put in the hours. It is an aspirational narrative, accompanied by a specific vernacular. Men are hench, wammo or tonk. […] Whereas the vest-wearing action stars of the 80s needed physical strength to hoik themselves into lift shafts and avert terrorism, today’s uber-tonk males wear their six-packs like beautiful, pointless feathers: this is a cosmetic muscularity, rather than a functional one.2018 June 27, Sirin Kale, “‘Get shredded in six weeks!’ The problem with extreme male body transformations”, in The Guardian:
Related terms
honky-tonk, tinkety-tonk

Tonk

noun

Etymology Contraction of Tonkinese.

1

A Tonkinese cat.

tonk

noun
1

Slang An item or items of value, or of perceived value, especially for sale.

  • How much tonk have we got to shift?

tonk

noun

Etymology Compare Tagalog tong-its, Ilocano tong-it, Pangasinan tung-it.

1

A matching card game, combining features of knock rummy and conquian.

  • It has big deep-down chairs and a card table by the window covered with jade, dracena and doctor plants until they want to have card games or play tonk between themselves.1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, Vintage (2016), page 13:

tonk

noun

Etymology Onomatopoeic.

1

A sound produced by knocking on something hollow.

2

Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Colloquial A resounding strike of the ball; a powerful hit of the ball with the bat.

tonk

noun

Etymology Alteration of tank.

1

Slang A tank.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for tonk and Tonk.