Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun plural A disagreeable and often miserly person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A covetous, sordid man; a miser; a niggard.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A covetous, sordid man; a miser; a niggard.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of hunk.
  • noun slang, dated A crotchety or surly person; also, a stingy man, a miser.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Inflected forms.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

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Examples

  • Love your throw caution to the wind attitude when it comes to being "bad" -- we do the same when it comes to indulging in hunks o'meat, go for the gusto with proper potatoes and roquefort.

    Recipes for Tuscan-style Grilled Steak with Roquefort-Rosemary Butter & Oven-Roasted Potatoes Laurie Constantino 2008

  • Fall upon the Ogre and hew him in hunks with your scymitars!

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Such a bulky connection also tends to pick up weed hunks from the water, but if you're in a hurry, it's a great quick fix-even if it's not the way you're "supposed" to do it.

    Flyfishing Dirty 2004

  • It pretty much follows the same formula – the French government’s gone all wrong and it takes two scrappy hunks from the wrong side of the tracks to flex some sense into it.

    Fantastic Fest – District 13: Ultimatum « Geek Related 2009

  • The clothes had rotted and the flesh fell away in hunks.

    The Grace of the Foolish « A Fly in Amber 2009

  • To stretch the calorie-heavy cheese, we shred it rather than carve it out in hunks.

    Archive 2008-02-01 Nupur 2008

  • Leave the "hunks" stuff to People magazine and tell us what really matters in this country.

    Orszag engaged to ABC News reporter 2009

  • And so they actively encouraged their sexual appetites, seeking out the "hunks," in order to keep themselves in the game of what once, long ago, was called courtship and has now degenerated into the alienating culture of "hooking up."

    The biggest stumbling blocks Mike L 2006

  • However, I haven't seen any 'hunks' yet and i seriously doubt I will see any in nursing!

    overthefence Diary Entry overthefence 2005

  • I was impressed, in first sitting down at the Keelers 'table, with a sense of my own ignorance as to the most familiar details of life, but soon learned to speak confidently of "hunks," and "fortune stew," and

    Cape Cod Folks Sarah P. McLean Greene 1895

Comments

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  • What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks?

    - Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 1

    July 23, 2008

  • Seems like Melville took a liking to this word:

    The miser, a lean old man, whose flesh seemed salted codfish, dry as combustibles; head, like one whittled by an idiot out of a knot; flat, bony mouth, nipped between buzzard nose and chin; expression, flitting between hunks and imbecile - now one, now the other - he made no response.

    - Melville, The Confidence Man

    September 6, 2012