zonk

plural zonks · alternative zoink

1. slangAn unfavorable card or token, or undesirable or worthless item used as a prize in a contest or game show (such as Let's Make a Deal).

   I have three empty coffee cans, two with prizes and one with a slip of paper that says "Zonk."

   2004, Timothy V. Rasinski, Nancy Padak, Effective reading strategies: teaching children who find reading difficult, Pearson/Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 150

   5 more examples

   There will always be two doors that hold zonks, so regardless of whether you initially chose the grand prize or a zonk, Monty will always be able to show you a zonk not chosen.

   2003 October 1, Gregory Arthur Baer, Life: The Odds (And How to Improve Them), Penguin, →ISBN, page 237

   A live, mane-embellished, SAG-card-carrying lion, I should point out, who was likely being staged for a few minutes off to the side before he would be used as a freaking “Zonk!” on a freaking game show, for crying out loud.

   2003 December 30, Jerrilyn Farmer, Mumbo Gumbo: A Madeline Bean Novel, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 204

   A zonk was way overdue, yet the boys knew that the Seniors knew they would think this was a zonk and would trick the boys by making this another real prize.

   2004, Jay Mechling, On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 124

   Avoid the Zonk / On the TV show Let's Make a Deal, contestants often had to choose between three curtains.

   2006 May 9, Bruce Frey, Statistics hacks, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 208

   Once a contestant picked a door, Monty would often open one of the other two doors to reveal a zonk,[…]

   2008, Max H. Bazerman, Don A. Moore, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 53

2. slangThe feeling of a drug taking hold.
3. slangA cigarette hand-rolled from tobacco and cannabis.

present singular third person zonks · participle present zonking · participle past zonked · past zonked · alternative zoink

1. slangtransitiveTo hit hard.First known use 1950
2. slangtransitiveTo make (someone) sleepy or delirious, to put into a stupor.First known use 1968
3. intransitiveslangTo become exhausted, sleepy, or delirious.

   After two hours of studying, I zonked out.