conk

plural conks · alternative konk

1. The shelf- or bracket-shaped fruiting body of a bracket fungus (also called a shelf fungus), i.e. a mushroom growing off a tree trunk.
2. slangA nose, especially a large one.
3. alternativeAlternative spelling of conch.

present singular third person conks · participle present conking · participle past conked · past conked · alternative konk

1. slangTo hit, especially on the head.

   She came skipping to me just now, clapping her little hands and bleating about how very, very happy she was, dear Mrs Travers. The silly young geezer. I nearly conked her one with my trowel. I'd always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn't even put her in the oven.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

plural conks

1. USdatedA hairstyle involving the chemical straightening and styling of kinky hair.

present singular third person conks · participle present conking · participle past conked · past conked

1. USdatedTo chemically straighten tightly curled hair.

   The barbecue cook, wearing a dirty white apron, his conked hair reddish and metallic in the pale sun, and a cigarette between his lips, stood in the doorway, watching them.

   1957, James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”, in Going to Meet the Man, Dial, published 1965

present singular third person conks · participle present conking · participle past conked · past conked

1. colloquialoftenTo fail or show signs of failing, cease operating, break down.

   I watch television when it's playing, but it done conked out. Everything is conked out.

   1983, Walli Leff, Marilyn Haft, Time without Work, page 93

   1 more example

   Therefore, have two or more engines, so that there is still some power left if one engine conks.

   1921, Australian Aero Clubs, Sea, Land and Air, volume 3, page 310

2. colloquialoftenTo become unconscious.