funk

1. 1.

   draw back, as with fear or pain

   “she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf”

   Synonymsflinchsquinchcringeshrinkwincerecoilquail

   Broadermove

   Narrowershrink back

Other forms of funk

plural

funks·

past tense

funked·

present participle

funking·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about funk

What does funk mean?

funk means "a state of nervous depression". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in funk?

funk has 1 syllable: funk. In IPA it is /ˈfʌŋk/.

What is another word for funk?

Close synonyms include blue funk, Casimir Funk, flinch, squinch, cringe. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is funk a common word?

funk is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.