SPUNK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spunk

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/spəŋk/ Listen

noun

Spunk n. (Written also sponk)

Wood that readily takes fire; touchwood; also, a kind of tinder made from a species of fungus; punk; amadou.

An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk. (Colloq.) "A lawless and dangerous set, men of spunk, and spirit, and power, both of mind and body."

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Etymology of 'Spunk'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spunk" Quotes from Famous Books

... as everybody knows; and Abner Briggs, Junior, was one of that kind. He remembered how he had floored Master Weeks, and he had just "spunk" enough left in him to try to repeat his former successful experiment on the new master. He sprang at him, open-handed, to clutch him. So the master had to strike,—once, but very hard, and just in the place ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... the last round, gentlemen," he reminded. "Are you all in? Don't leave with regrets. You," he said, direct to me. "Are you in such short circumstances that you have no spunk? Why did you come here, sir, if not to win? Why, the stakes you play would not buy refreshment ...

— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin

... your feet, then; it'll be some English rider. Coming without a servant at this time o' night! Has the hostler ta'en the horse? Ye may light a spunk o' fire ...

— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... nae mair nor a guano-bag. There's nocht in him but what the spoon pits intil him. He hasna the spunk o' a rabbit. I tell ye what, we need a man o' wecht in oor kirk. Come up oot o' there, boy; ye're lickin' that sugar again! Na, he'll ken wha he's preachin' till, when he stands up afore me. ...

— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... towards the close of my stay notes: "I wouldn't be a native under British rule at any price. They may 'do a lot of good to you,' but, dear God! they do let you know their contempt for you, and drive your inferiority into you. Any one with any spunk would rather go to hell his own way than be chivied to heaven by such odiously superior beasts. . . . The Moslems are not grateful for 'benefits' they do not want, and the Christians are discontented and annoyed, as in Bosnia." ...

— Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle • Durham M. Edith

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