conk

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɒŋk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɑŋk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɒŋk

Variant or figurative use of conch. Attested since the nineteenth century.[1]

• konk

conk (plural conks)

Bracket fungus on a fallen tree trunk

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. (slang) A nose, especially a large one.
3. Alternative spelling of conch

• artist's conk

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

1. (slang) To hit, especially on the head.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     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.

• cold-conk
• conk out

From congolene, the brand name of a hair-straightening product.

Singer Nat King Cole in 1956 with his hair conked

conk (plural conks)

1. (US, dated) A hairstyle involving the chemical straightening and styling of kinky hair.

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

1. (US, dated) To chemically straighten tightly curled hair.
   • 1957, James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”, in Going to Meet the Man‎, Dial, published 1965:

     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.

Unknown. Attested since the early twentieth century.

conk (third-person singular simple present conks, present participle conking, simple past and past participle conked)

1. (colloquial, often with out) To fail or show signs of failing, cease operating, break down.
   • 1921, Australian Aero Clubs, Sea, Land and Air, volume 3, page 310:

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

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

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

2. (colloquial, often with out) To become unconscious.

• Nock, nock