Dunked

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To briefly submerge an item in liquid for flavor, to score in basketball by forcefully placing the ball through the hoop, or to quickly dip something into a solution for a specific effect
2. To quickly submerge an item in liquid for flavor enhancement, to score points in basketball by forcefully placing the ball through the rim, or to immerse something briefly for a particular purpose
3. To plunge something briefly into a liquid to soak or moisten it ; to make a basketball score by forcefully pushing the ball down through the hoop

Etymology: "Dunked" is the past tense of "dunk," a verb that came into English from Pennsylvania German, the dialect spoken by German immigrants in colonial and later America. There it was "dunke," which came from Middle High German "dunken" and Old High German "dunkōn," both meaning to dip or submerge. The sense of dipping food, such as bread into coffee or a biscuit into tea, is the one that travelled furthest. The deeper roots lie in a prehistoric idea of wetness. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root "teng-" meant "to moisten," and it gave Ancient Greek "téngō" and Latin "tingō," both meaning to wet or moisten. Through Latin, that same root reached English in "tint" and "tincture," and "taint" shares it as well, so "dunk" is a distant cousin of words for colouring and contamination.

Synonyms: dipped, immersed