▪ I. tonk, n.1 slang (chiefly Austral.).
(tɒŋk)
[Etym. unknown.]
a. A term of abuse: a fool, an idiot.
| 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 77 Tonk, a simpleton or fool. (2) A dude or fop. (3) A general term of contempt. 1963 New Society 22 Aug. 5/1 ‘Bleg’, ‘thick boot’, ‘tonk’, and ‘greb’ are all of uncertain origin, but probably have euphemistic backgrounds. 1965 [see nana2]. |
b. A homosexual man.
| 1943 Penguin New Writing XVII. 83 The cook got my goat when he started trying to do the same thing. He was a tonk all right, just a real old auntie. 1965 H. Porter Stars Austral. Stage & Screen 280 During the last ten years or more, there have been imported a coterie of untalented English homosexuals, English tonks unheard of outside their home country. 1970 TV Times (Austral.) 15 July 41/3 There was also a homosexual (who was referred to as a ‘tonk’—thereby dating Mr Porter rather badly). |
Restrict ‘Chiefly Austral.’ to senses in Dict. and add: c. The penis.
| 1970 C. Wood Terrible Hard vii. 96 I'll never understand why a little scouse git like you should have such a bleeding great tonk. 1980 J. Carey Original Copy 257 Most of his boyhood was spent worrying about the size of his ‘tonk’ (as he disarmingly dubs it). |
▪ II. tonk, n.2
(tɒŋk)
Colloq. abbrev. of honky-tonk.
| 1937 [see smoke-shop s.v. smoke n. 11]. 1948 Common Ground VIII. 38 The man who owned the little country Tonk was named Hamp... It was a one-room shanty store that doubled as a country bar room at night. 1960 C. Hamblett in J. Pudney Pick of Today's Short Stories XI. 138 None of the other rundown bars and tonks had anyone remotely like Lia. |
▪ III. tonk, n.3 colloq. (chiefly Sport).
(tɒŋk)
[Echoic: see tonk v.]
A powerful hit or stroke, esp. with a bat (or racket). Also fig.
| 1922 Chambers's Jrnl. XII. 801/2 Such a shot was, after all, merely a ‘plain, straight, ordinary sort of tonk’. 1977 J. McClure Sunday Hangman ii. 21 Ach, sir; we'd have at least heard as much, if Tollie had been giving it a tonk. It's obvious that he was waiting for the pressure to come off first. 1987 Squash World Mar. 23/3 That's not to say that we won't be any good at squash unless we can give the ball a mighty tonk. |
▪ IV. tonk, v. colloq. (chiefly Sport).
(tɒŋk)
[Echoic.]
trans. a. To strike. b. To beat or defeat. Freq. pass.
| 1910 A. A. Milne Day's Play 114 Wanting four to win, I fairly tried to tonk the leather. 1926 Galsworthy Silver Spoon iii. i. 224 ‘He seems to enjoy the prospect of getting tonked,’ murmured Michael. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. 207 Here are a few general expressions concerned with school life:..to get tonked, to receive corporal punishment. 1963 A. Ross Australia 63 ii. 55 Our spinners have been tonked about yet again by uncouth country batsmen. |