punky
punky Lexical Profile
punky Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Relating to, characteristic of, or resembling punk rock music or the associated punk subculture.
"The band's new album features a raw, punky guitar sound that recalls the late 1970s."
North American Soft, spongy, and partly decayed or rotted (especially of wood or timber).
"The carpenter had to replace the porch columns because the lower sections had become damp and punky."
North American In poor health or low spirits; unwell (informal).
"She decided to stay home from the office because she was feeling a bit punky after her trip."
• noun
North American Any of various minute, bloodsucking biting midges of the family Ceratopogonidae native to North American forests and wetlands, notorious for inflicting painful, itching bites.
"By dusk, swarms of punkies made camping near the marsh nearly unbearable without fine netting."
• Rhymes for punky
Word Origin & Etymology
The sense referring to soft, decayed wood derives from 17th-century American English 'punk' (touchwood or tinder), borrowed from an Algonquian language such as Delaware 'pónk' (dust, ashes, or gunpowder). The noun sense referring to a biting midge also comes from this Algonquian root, while the musical and cultural sense is a modern derivative of 'punk rock' from the 1970s.