funk
Preserved but no longer current.
To smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through fear. I was in a cursed funk. To funk the cobler; a schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton, which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies of a cobler's stall.
Era: ca. 1811 (Georgian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811 edition, public domain; Project Gutenberg #5402, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “funk” mean?
To smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through fear. I was in a cursed funk. To funk the cobler; a schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton, which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies of a cobler's stall.
Is “funk” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.