dunch

See also: Dunch

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʌnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌntʃ

Etymology 1

From Middle English dunchen, of uncertain origin. Possibly from the noun (see below); or of North Germanic origin, related to Old Swedish diunga (“to hit, knock”), dialectal Swedish dunka (“to beat”); or from Middle English dengen, from Old English denġan, denċġan (“to knock, ding”), from Proto-Germanic *dangijaną (“to bang, knock”). Compare English dinge.

Alternative forms

• dunsh (Geordie)

Verb

dunch (third-person singular simple present dunches, present participle dunching or dunchin, simple past and past participle dunched)

1. (Geordie) To knock against; to hit, punch
2. (Geordie) To crash into; to bump into.
3. (Scotland) To gore with the horns, as a bull.
4. (British) To jog, especially with the elbow.

Etymology 2

From Middle English dunche, perhaps from Old English *dynċ, from Proto-Germanic *dunkiz.

Compare Old Norse dykr, dynkr (“a crashing noise”), Danish dunk (“a blow”), Swedish dunk (“a thump, clap”), Norwegian dunk (“a knock, bump”).

Noun

dunch (plural dunches)

1. (dialectal) A push; knock; bump.
   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:

     And just at the same time the tide caught the brig, and threw the wind out of her sails. She came round into the wind like a top, and the next moment struck the reef with such a dunch as threw us all flat upon the deck, and came near to shake Mr. Riach from his place upon the mast.

2. (golf) A fat hit from a claggy lie.

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “DUNCH”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• “Dunch”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[1], archived from the original on 2024-09-05, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “dunch”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[2], archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Golfing dictionary, accessed on 2005-06-01

Etymology 3

Blend of dinner +‎ lunch, probably in imitation of brunch.

Noun

dunch

1. (informal, rare) A leisurely meal between lunch and dinner in the late afternoon or early evening (about 3-5 p.m.), usually instead of lunch or dinner.

   I have a lunchtime meeting tomorrow, so let's have dunch together instead.

Synonyms

• linner
• lupper

Translations

meal between lunch and dinner

• Breton: adverenn (br) f
• Catalan: berenar (ca) m
• Interlingua: merenda
• Italian: merenda (it) f
• Persian: عصرانه (fa) ('asrâne)
• Portuguese: merenda (pt) f
• Slovak: olovrant m
• Spanish: merienda (es) f
• Zazaki: êrene f

See also

• brinner
• brunch
• brupper

Scots

Verb

dunch (third-person singular simple present dunches, present participle dunchin, simple past duncht, past participle duncht)

1. to hit, punch