Definition

1. Verb:

   • To dip a piece of food into a liquid: To briefly submerge something, especially food, into a liquid such as coffee, tea, soup, or sauce before eating it.
   • To make a dunk shot in basketball: To jump and thrust the ball downward through the basketball hoop with one or both hands.
   • To immerse something briefly in a liquid: To put something into a liquid for a short time to wet, coat, or saturate it.

2. Noun:

   • A dunk shot in basketball: A scoring play in which a player jumps and forces the ball down through the basket.

Examples

• Verb (Dipping food):

  • He likes to dunk his cookies in milk.
  • She dunked the bread into the gravy.

• Verb (Basketball):

  • The player leaped high to dunk the ball over his opponent.
  • He dunked it with two hands.

• Verb (Immersing):

  • Before painting, dunk the brush in the solvent to clean it.
  • The recipe says to dunk the fabric in the dye for thirty seconds.

• Noun (Basketball):

  • His powerful dunk brought the crowd to its feet.
  • She scored the winning points with a spectacular dunk.

Advanced Usage

• "Dunk on someone" (slang, basketball and figurative): To perform a dunk over an opponent in a showy or humiliating way, or figuratively, to decisively outperform or humiliate someone.

  • The rookie dunked on the veteran center, shocking everyone.
  • In the debate, she totally dunked on her opponent with that fact.

• "Dunk tank": A carnival game where a person sits on a platform over a tank of water; when a target is hit, the platform drops, dunking the person into the water.

Variants and Related Words

• Dunker (noun): A basketball player known for performing dunks.

  • He is one of the best dunkers in the league.

• Dunking (noun/gerund): The action of performing a dunk.

  • His dunking ability is incredible.

Synonyms

• Verb (Dipping/Immersing): Dip, plunge, immerse, submerge, douse.
• Verb/Noun (Basketball): Slam dunk, jam, stuff.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Dunk in: To put something into a liquid. (This is the core meaning; "in" is often followed by the liquid).
  • Dunk the doughnut in your coffee.

Related Idioms

• "Slam dunk": Originally a forceful, certain dunk in basketball. Figuratively, it means something that is very easy or certain to succeed.
  • Getting that contract was a slam dunk for the company.
  • The prosecutor thought the case was a slam dunk.

Noun

1. a basketball shot in which the basketball is propelled downward into the basket

Verb

1. dip into a liquid while eating
   • She dunked the piece of bread in the sauce
2. make a dunk shot, in basketball
   • He dunked the ball
3. immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate
   • dip the garment into the cleaning solution
   • dip the brush into the paint