[f. FUNK sb.3 + -Y1.] In a state of ‘funk,’ frightened, nervous, timid.

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1837.  Dickens, Pickw. [The nervous junior counsel in Bardell v. Pickwick is named ‘Mr. Phunky.’]

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1845.  S. Naylor, Reynard, 46. I do feel somewhat funky.

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1871.  G. Meredith, H. Richmond, lii. (1889), 501. If he did not give up to you like a funky traveller to a highwayman.

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  Hence Funkiness.

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1896.  Punch, 22 Aug., 88/2. I subdued my native funkiness so far as to make the revolution of the great wheel.

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