slang. [Belongs to FUNK sb.3]
1. intr. To flinch or shrink through fear; to ‘show the white feather,’ try to back out of anything.
1737–9. H. Walpole, Lett. (1886), I. 15. The last time I saw him here [Eton], was standing up funking over against a conduit to be catechised.
1813. Ld. Campbell, Lett., April, in Life (1881), I. 295. I funk before Ellenborough as much as ever. I almost despair of ever acquiring a sufficient degree of confidence before him to put me in possession of my faculties.
1847. Illustr. Lond. News, 27 Nov., 360/2. It occurred to me that the change of temperature would be disagreeable, and I rather funked.
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. ix. Poems, 1890, II. 137. To Funk right out o’ p’lit’cal strife aint thought to be the thing.
1885. Runciman, Skippers and Shellbacks, 79. I hope you will not think I am funking, sir; but are you aware we are just about done?
2. trans. To fight shy of, wish or try to shirk or evade (an undertaking, duty, etc.). Also, to funk it.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, III. 103. He’ll have funked it, when he comes to the edge, and sees nothing but mist below.
1881. H. James, Portr. Lady, xlv. Not that he liked good-byes—he always funked them.
3. To fear, be afraid of (a person).
1836–48. B. D. Walsh, Aristoph., Knights, 154. The rich men fear him, And he is funked by all the poorer class.
1849. Alb. Smith, Pottleton Leg., xxxiii. 385. ‘I rather funk the governor,’ replied, in turn, Mr. Spooner.
4. To frighten or scare.
1819. Sporting Mag., IV. 197. The Frenchman, funked at the superiority of his antagonist.
1831. Scott, Jrnl., 20 May. Jeffrey is fairly funked about it.
1892. The Saturday Review, LXXIII. 30 April, 496/2. The jury, ‘funked’ by the Anarchists, returned extenuating circumstances in the miscreant’s case, and therefore made it impossible for the judge to sentence him to death.
5. Comb., as funksticks (Hunting), one who ‘funks’ the ‘sticks’ or fences.
1889. Univ. Rev., III. 76. The ‘funksticks’ immediately slacken rein.
Hence Funking vbl. sb. Also Funker.
a. 1845. Hood, Jack Hall, xi. Funking, indeed, was quite a thing Beside his function.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. viii. While he [Flashman] was in the act of thrashing them, they would roar out instances of his funking at football, or shirking some encounter with a lout of half his own size.
1864. C. Clarke, Box for Season, II. 115. Martyr and Dickenson are both funkers, and only fit for Liverpool, where you are more likely to be killed, but without thinking of it beforehand.
1875. Whyte Melville, Riding Recoll., iv. (1879), 64. Of all riders ‘the hard funker’ is the most unmerciful to his beast.
