different between hork vs honk

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeia or imitative. For “cough up” sense, compare hawk/hock (16th century), which are almost homophonous in non-rhotic accents. For “throw” sense, compare huck. The “foul up” sense is presumably influenced by bork (late 1990s), from broken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h??(?)k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Verb

hork (third-person singular simple present horks, present participle horking, simple past and past participle horked)

1. (computing, slang) To foul up; to be occupied with difficulty, tangle, or unpleasantness; to be broken.

   I downloaded the program, but something is horked and it won't load.

2. (slang, regional) To steal, especially petty theft or misnomer in jest.

   Can I hork that code from you for my project?

3. (slang) To vomit, cough up.
4. (slang) To throw.

   Let's go hork pickles at people from the back row of the movie theatre.

5. (slang) To eat hastily or greedily; to gobble.

   I don't know what got into her, but she horked all those hoagies last night!

6. (slang, transitive) To move.

   Go hork the kegs from out back.

Usage notes

Senses “eat quickly” and “vomit” can be ambiguous, particularly when applied to food – this is a contranym. These senses can be disambiguated by using "hork up" for "vomit" and "hork down" for "eat quickly."

Synonyms

• (foul up): bork
• (throw): hork
• (cough up): hawk, hock
• (gobble): gobble, scarf, scoff

Anagrams

• Kohr, Kroh, khor

English

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /h??k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /h??k/, /h??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

honk (third-person singular simple present honks, present participle honking, simple past and past participle honked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To use a car horn.

2. (intransitive) To make a loud, harsh sound like a car horn.
3. (intransitive) To make the vocal sound of a goose.
4. (slang) To vomit: regurgitate the contents of one's stomach.
5. (slang) To have a bad smell.
6. (informal) To squeeze playfully, usually a breast or nose.

Derived terms

• honker
• honking

Translations

Noun

honk (countable and uncountable, plural honks)

1. The sound produced by a typical car horn.
2. The cry of a goose.
3. (informal) A bad smell.

Translations

Interjection

honk

1. Imitation of car horn, used, for example, to clear a path for oneself.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

honk (plural honks)

1. Clipping of honky.

Anagrams

• Kohn, khon

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch honc, likely through Old Dutch from Proto-Germanic *hank-, *hunk-. Only has cognates in the Frisian languages and possibly in the Old High German placename Hancwin. Since cognates outside of Germanic are lacking, the word is probably of substrate origin. Possibly related to haak (“hook”) and hoek (“corner”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k/
• Hyphenation: honk
• Rhymes: -??k

Noun

honk n (plural honken, diminutive honkje n)

1. (somewhat rare) home, place where one belongs, shelter
2. (games) base (safe zone, e.g. in baseball and similar sports)

Synonyms

• (home): thuis, heem

Derived terms

• honkbal
• honkvast
• jeugdhonk
• krachthonk

References