Entry revised for OED Online

bonk, n.

DRAFT REVISION Apr. 2006

[Echoic: see the vb.]

1. An abrupt, heavy sound, as when a solid object strikes a hard surface or bony part of the body; a bump or blow. Also as int. colloq.

1934 G. SINCLAIR Cannibal Quest 72, I was walking with two other men through a cultivated coconut plantation with no more to fear than..a bonk on the head from a falling coconut. 1938 N. HUNTER Larky Legends iv. 47 The third [arrow] struck the dummy dragon bonk right on the boot-box. 1941 Dandy Comic 20 Sept. 15/2 (in figure) Bonk...Yow! What's hit me? 1948 [see BONKERS]. 1957 MANVELL & HUNTLEY Film Music iii. 168 Sketches of cogs, gears, belt-drives, looms and engines..are shown to an orchestration of clangs, clicks, whirrs and ‘bonks’. 1977 Washington Post 4 June C2/1 One girl guarded her resonating bells from bypassers who thought they might as well go bonk-bonk as they strolled past. 1985 Times 15 Jan. 13/5 No matter what the axle weight, three axles give rise to six bonks instead of four and it is the bonks and not the axle weight that do the damage to our historic houses. 1986 Guardian 27 Dec. 30/7 This geezer come at me

38 stone tub of lard in a loincloth

and, bonk! It's all over.

2. Sport. (A sudden attack of) fatigue or light-headedness sometimes experienced by racing cyclists and other athletes (see quot. 1983). slang.

1952 Daily Mail 14 Apr. 2/8 He hoped to ward off that sinking feeling which comes after prolonged effort and which athletes call ‘bonk’. 1978 WATSON & GRAY Penguin Bk. Bicycle vi. 255 The British call this attack of nauseous weakness the ‘Bonk’. 1983 Times 1 July 12/2 ‘You've got to watch out for the bonk.’.. ‘The bonk’ is a sudden collapse of the blood sugar level, instantly bringing on delirium and delusion.

3. An act of sexual intercourse. slang.

1984 MCCONVILLE & SHEARLAW Slanguage of Sex 34/2 Bonk, sexual intercourse. As in ‘Did you have a good bonk last night?’ 1986 Private Eye 13 June 8/1 Competition to guess the meaning of the letters ‘GB’...Suggestions..include ‘Great Bonk’, ‘Ginger Bush’, ‘Geoff Barnard’ and ‘Georgie Best’. 1986 Today 22 Dec. 11/4 Mistakes are referred to as boobs—which seems fair enough. What is a little surprising is that even the programme's adult representatives claim they don't quite know what a bonk might be.

4. Special Comb.: bonk bag Cycling slang, a small bag for carrying light food that can be nibbled while racing so as to prevent ‘the bonk’ (sense 2 above).

1978 WATSON & GRAY Penguin Bk. Bicycle ii. 65 Musettes or bonk-bags..avoid the problems caused by heavier paraphernalia. 1983 Times 1 July 12/2 The cyclists may use up to 6,000 calories during a race; to stave off ‘the bonk’ they nibble constantly from small snacks in the ‘bonk-bags’ they all wear.