dunk
/dʌɳk/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
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.
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
- a basketball shot in which the basketball is propelled downward into the basket
Verb
- dip into a liquid while eating
- She dunked the piece of bread in the sauce
- make a dunk shot, in basketball
- He dunked the ball
- 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