gronk

plural gronks

1. AustraliaderogatoryinformalAn unintelligent and callous person.

present singular third person gronks · participle present gronking · participle past gronked · past gronked

1. intransitiveslangcomputingOf a floppy disk drive: to produce mechanical sounds of operation.

   […] a disk drive gronked, her screen bloomed, and suddenly there was an icon in the upper right corner.

   1993, Iris Forrest, Computer Tales of Fact and Fantasy

   2 more examples

   They say a good detective always starts at the beginning, so I installed the program on my VGA PC's hard drive. As the computer gronked away, copying six 5¼-inch floppies, I wondered why, if bad detectives start at the end, […]

   1990, Compute, volume 12, numbers 1-5, page 62

   The next startup event is the computer's attempt to read a disk in drive A. But, there is no disk in drive A, remember? You were supposed to remove any disk in this drive. So, you hear a lot of pathetic gronking and grakking until the computer gives up […]

   1994, Bryan Pfaffenberger, I Hate PCs

2. intransitiverareslangcomputingTo fail; to crash or go wrong.

   Repeats the last 40 lines of IRC output, in case your terminal gronked.

   1992, Charlottesville Computer Users' Group: CCUG

   1 more example

   The other faction centered on […] what went on under the [model railway] layout. This was The System, […] and it was constantly being improved, revamped, perfected, and sometimes "gronked"—in club jargon, screwed up.

   2010, Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (25th Anniversary Edition)

plural gronks

1. a harsh grating sound.
   1. The cry of a raven.

      My raven launched himself into the dark above with a gronk of amusement.

      2021, David Reed, Raven Queen, Rise, unnumbered page

      2 more examples

      Silence rang in my ears, punctuated by the occasional gronk of the ravens, as they flitted about in the spruce trees.

      2006, Terrence Rundle West, Run of the Town, page 153

      Her call elicited an annoyed gronk above her head, and she looked up to see a raven lifting off the cliff face.

      2010, Diane Lee Wilson, Raven Speak, page 6

      Synonyms: quork

   2. A mating call of the Albert's lyrebird.

      We then viewed the audio spectrogram...and measured the timing of each gronk.

      2024, Fiona Backhouse, Justin A. Welbergen, Bryce W. Robinson and Anastasia H. Dalziell, “Performative Manipulation of the Environment by Displaying Albert’s Lyrebirds”, in The American Naturalist, volume 204, number 2, page 183

   3. UKslangrail transportA British Rail Class 08 shunter locomotive, or similar shunters.

present singular third person gronks · participle present gronking · participle past gronked · past gronked

1. To make a gronking sound.

   Juan Bautista handed the raven off to a perch—it gronked and protested—and took a seat on his couch.

   2007, Kage Baker, The Graveyard Game, page 34

   2 more examples

   A raven gronked along the timber-covered ridge line, and a cool breeze swept down from the snow-covered peaks.

   2001, G. Stewart Nash, The Last Three Hundred Miles, page 96

   The rush of water behind me, the soft drip from the trees, ravens gronking far off—these were the only sounds I heard.

   2017, Robert Michael Pyle, Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide, unnumbered page

   Synonyms: quork

1. diminutiveDiminutive of Gronkowski.

plural Gronks

1. UKrail transportA British Rail Class 09 locomotive.