Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of.

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

  • verb transitive To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb expose while ridiculing; especially of pretentious or false claims and ideas

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

de- +‎ bunk (from bunkum) 1923

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Examples

  • And in the 20th century, we shortened that to bunk, and in the 1920s, someone came up with the term debunk as an antidote to bunk.

    America In So Many Words 1998

  • A more thorough debunk is available here, but one point bears mentioning.

    Wonk Room » What Do Private Insurers Do With Your Money? 2009

  • The inference of the word debunk implies that it is something dishonest that needs to be corrected.

    Kirk Cameron attempts to debunk Darwin 2009

  • ‘More obscurely, and more defiant against attempts to debunk, is the case of Ninel Kulagina.

    The Bizarre Case Of Ninel Kulagina | Disinformation 2007

  • Regard­ing our recent dis­cus­sion on sub­urbs and cities, here’s an inter­est­ing arti­cle from Joel Kotkin debunk­ing many of the “cre­ative cities” ideas that have been so pop­u­lar in the wake of Richard Florida.

    The Myth of the Creative Class? « Snarkmarket 2005

  • The words meditation and mindfulness have become interchangeable in recent years, with the latter adopted as a term to debunk the myths around meditation.

    WalesOnline - Home 2011

  • It's so tragically stupid. on 02 / 26 / 2009, -0 / +4Don't think you can find a so called debunk of America: "Freedom to Fascism" no google and think thats research this is not refuting any thing

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2009

  • You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air.

    Sunday Reading 2009

  • That is why those of us who feel that the Myth is already dead for us must not make the mistake of trying to 'debunk' it in the wrong way.

    C.S. Lewis on Evolutionism (the Myth) 2009

  • In that sense, Newsweek was in the vanguard of what would become a trend of the American news media, to ignore or "debunk" investigations of major national security crimes rather than seriously investigate them.

    Printing: Hard Lessons from Decades Past 2010

Comments

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  • To get out of bed.

    I like the peg-legged sound - debunk, debunk, debunk.

    March 25, 2011

  • I used to love my morning debunk

    When my leg hit the floor - kerplunk!

    But one day it went squish

    On a poor startled fish -

    'Cos my rickety junk had sunk!

    March 25, 2011

  • Brackets around "rickety junk," please.

    Also see badunkadunk.

    March 25, 2011

  • rickety junk.

    Happy boating.

    March 25, 2011

  • Yar!

    March 25, 2011