lunk

plural lunks

1. derogatoryinformalA fool; an idiot; a lunkhead.

   Nonetheless, the joyful lunk is clearly a character whom [Travis] Kelce is happy to play on television and podcasts.

   2025 August 26, Helen Lewis, “The Defiant Conventionality of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce”, in The Atlantic

   2 more examples

   “Shadow Ticket” opens in Prohibition-era Milwaukee. Our hero: Hicks McTaggart — former union buster turned muscle for hire, sensitive lunk, good dancer.

   2025 October 9, Parul Sehgal, “Thomas Pynchon Saw Where America Was Headed. What Does He See Now?”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2025

   And the smiling lunk with his arm round the teenage girl – who he denies he had sex with later that evening – is living in a 30-room mansion on a 98-acre estate (which even his monarch brother reportedly doesn’t know how he pays for), joshing away at family funerals, and just sort of … riding it out, each time another of his lies about this story is exposed.

   2025 October 17, Marina Hyde, “Punish Prince Andrew? This is no meritocracy, I’m afraid – you get the royal family you didn’t vote for”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: addle-brain, addlehead, addle pate, airhead, baboon, beanbrain, beetlebrain, beetlehead