Noun

1. A prostitute.
   • , V.i.

     My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

   • 1663: Samuel Butler, Hudibras.

     And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
     For Dame Religion, as for punk.

2. The bottom in a male-male sexual relationship; a catamite.

   Because he was so weak, Vinny soon became Tony's punk.

3. A male used for sex by larger or stronger inmates.
   • 1946, Mezz Mezzrow & Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, p. 15:

     A punk, if you want it in plain English, is a boy with smooth skin who takes the place of a woman in a jailbird's love life.

4. A social and musical movement rooted in rebelling against the established order.
5. The music of the punk movement, known for short songs with electric guitars, strong drums, and a direct, unproduced approach.
6. A person subscribing to the movement, a punk rocker.

   Usage note: An informal plural used within the punk subculture is punx.

7. A worthless person.
8. A juvenile delinquent, young petty criminal or trouble-maker.
9. A utensil for lighting wicks or fuses (such as those of fireworks) resembling stick incense.
   • 1907, Jack London, The Road, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14658

     On the end a coal of fire slowly smouldered. It would last for hours, and my cell-mate called it a "punk."

   • 1994, Ashland Price, Viking Tempest, p353

     Then, without another word, he rose and left the shelter, apparently in order to light the vessel's wick with a punk from the dying campfire.

   • 2004, Shawn Shiflett, Hidden Place, p221

     He raised the cylinder high in the air with his bare hand, used a punk to light the fuse, and KABOOM!

10. Various kinds of material used as tinder for lighting fires, such as agaric, dry decayed wood or touchwood.http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=punk&use1913=on
    • 1899, H. B. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, p271

      On one occasion a venerable old Indian man, who, in order to light his pipe, was trying to catch a spark upon a piece of punk struck from his flint and steel; ...

    • 1922, Harry Ignatius Marshall, The Karen People of Burma, p61

      The oil is mixed with bits of dry wood or punk and moulded into sticks about a cubit long and an inch in diameter by putting it into joints of small bamboo.

    • 2001, William W. Johnstone, War of the Mountain Man, p116

      He made him a little smoldering pocket of punk to light the fuses and waited.

Usage notes

The most common usage is as in punk rock, the social and musical movement. In the UK this is possibly the sole usage with occasional quotation from film, TV etc. as in the example given below.

Quotations

worthless person

• 1971 - I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking, "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, I've forgotten myself in all this excitement. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk? — Clint Eastword as Harry Callahan in the motion picture Dirty Harry

Adjective

1. Of, or resembling the punk subculture

   You look very punk with your t-shirt, piercing and chains.

Verb

1. (17th century) To pimp.

   Tony punked-out Vinny when he was low on smokes.

2. To forcibly perform anal sex upon an unwilling partner.

   Tony punked all his new cell-mates.

3. To prank.

   I got expelled when I punked the principal.

4. To give up or concede; to act like a wimp.

   Jimmy was going to help me with the prank, but he punked-out at the last minute.

Usage notes

The relatively tame 21st century usage of punk was popularized by the American television show Punk'd. Until as recently as the late 20th century, punk still connoted rape or submitting to anal rape (punk-out). The second use of the term punk-out is now comparable to acting like a pussy and mildly implies submissive behavior in general.

Synonyms

• prostitute
• catamite
• pussy