chunk
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /t͡ʃʌŋk/
rhymes: -ʌŋk
Forms: form: chunks
Etymology: Variant of chuck; or alternatively a diminutive of chump (“chunk; block”) + *-k (diminutive suffix) (compare hunk from hump, etc.).
Senses: examples: text: The statue broke into chunks.
text: a chunk of granite
text: Daylight, between mouthfuls, fed chunks of ice into the tin pot, where it thawed into water. ... Daylight cut up generous chunks of bacon and dropped them in the pot of bubbling beans.
ref: 1910, Jack London, Burning Daylight:
text: Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.
ref: 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Hertingfordbury:
synonyms: word: bit
word: hunk
word: lump
word: bit
word: chip
word: chunk
word: clip
word: crumb
word: crumbling
word: cutting
word: flake
word: fleak
word: fragment
word: hunk
word: lump
word: mammock
word: ort
word: piece
word: piecemeal
word: portion
word: scrap
word: scraplet
word: slice
word: snead
word: snippet
word: steck
glosses: A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
examples: text: I'd be willing to bet a chunk of my retirement that the number hasn't decreased.
ref: 2013 February 26, Maryellen Weimer, Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 91:
text: […] she'd be willing to bet a chunk of change this would be one of the nicest rooms Kate-Lynn Bowers had ever slept in: it was the sort of place you'd think twice about running away from.
ref: 2015 December 6, Eva Hudson, Shoot First, Two Pies Press:
synonyms: word: bit
word: hunk
word: lump
word: bit
word: chip
word: chunk
word: clip
word: crumb
word: crumbling
word: cutting
word: flake
word: fleak
word: fragment
word: hunk
word: lump
word: mammock
word: ort
word: piece
word: piecemeal
word: portion
word: scrap
word: scraplet
word: slice
word: snead
word: snippet
word: steck
glosses: A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
A large or substantial portion of something.
examples: text: examples of chunks would include "in accordance with", "the results of", and "so far"
topics: education
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic; a bundle or cluster.
examples: text: The first DWORD of a chunk data in the RIFF chunk is a four character code value identifying the form type of the file.
ref: 1994, Paul J Perry, Multimedia developer's guide:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A discrete segment of a file, stream, etc. (especially one that represents audiovisual media); a block.
examples: text: You begin gathering two hours of dependable comedy by developing that first three-minute chunk. When you're satisfied with it, you create another three minutes of laughs, then another three minutes.
ref: 1994, Gene Perret, Successful Stand-up Comedy: Advice from a Comedy Writer, page 80:
text: If you're gigging outdoors for the Society of Catholic Gardeners, don't close your set with your "Papa Beelzebub" chunk (no matter how life affirming you think it is!).
ref: 2012, Jay Sankey, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy, page 168:
topics: comedy
entertainment
lifestyle
glosses: A segment of a comedian's performance.
Derived terms: chunk-blower
chunkful
chunkification
chunkify
chunklength
chunkless
chunklet
chunklike
chunk of change
chunkserver
chunkster
chunkwise
chunky
kerchunk
subchunk