gunk

[guhngk] /gʌŋk/

noun, Informal.

any sticky or greasy residue or accumulation:

gunk on the oil filter.

Origin

1932, Americanism; originally a trademark name for a degreasing solvent

Examples from the web for gunk

The leaves can gunk up the fan mechanism and snow that turns to ice can cause problems with either rust or expansion.
Food particles and water are spun off as a creamy gunk that he removes with a rag.
The light-killing blackness makes for delicate balances of impenetrable gunk and infinite depth.
The increase in pressure expels the water in the mouth cavity and whatever gunk may be floating in it.
And the greedy generation of gunk hypotheses through senseless pattern recognition is a hindrance to that.
Half the resultant gunk is then put into the ramekins and allowed to set in the refrigerator.
It breaks down the gunk on oven surfaces, neutralizing some fatty acids and turning others into grease-cutting solvents.
Used for millennia to congeal soy milk into tofu, this gunk has hundreds of applications.
But unless you have a history of ear infections, that gunk is generally innocuous.
Lungs-to-sinuses clogged up with gunk, which fortunately has not yet turned green.

British Dictionary definitions for gunk

gunk

/ɡʌŋk/

noun

(informal) slimy, oily, or filthy matter

Word Origin

C20: perhaps of imitative origin

Word Origin and History for gunk

1949, "viscous substance," American English, apparently from Gunk, trademark for a thick liquid soap patented 1932 by A.F. Curran Co. of Malden, Mass.

Slang definitions & phrases for gunk

gunk

noun

Any sticky, viscous liquid, esp hair tonic, cosmetics, lubricants, or cleaning fluids; glop, gook1
Dirt; slime; oily grime; muck: The anchor was clotted in noisome gunk

[1932+; fr a trademark, Gunk, for a degreasing compound, and part of a cluster of nearly synonymous terms beginning with g]