chunk

Pluralchunks

Formschunks, chunking, chunked

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A squat, thick, irregular piece broken or separated from something larger, such as wood or stone.

   The woodcutter split a heavy chunk from the fallen oak.

   Chunks of ice drifted past the boat as the glacier calved.

   Similarpiece, lump, hunk, bit, fragment

   Note

   The base sense, and the one the word's origin explains. Chunk may be a variant of chuck, or a diminutive of chump ("block") with a small -k ending, the way hunk relates to hump. It names a thick, uneven piece: granite, ice, bacon, masonry knocked off a corner. Hunk and lump are close, but chunk keeps the idea of a piece broken from something larger.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A sizable part or amount of something.

   The project took up a sizable chunk of the company's budget.

   He devoted a significant chunk of his career to that research.

   Similarpiece, portion, hunk, lump, slice

   Note

   Here size matters more than shape. A chunk of a budget or a career has no edges at all. The word is at home with money and time, and a favorite setting is the wager: willing to bet a chunk of my retirement, or a chunk of change. Words like sizable, big or good often stand in front of it to stress the amount.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To break something into large pieces or chunks.

   The recipe says to chunk the squash before roasting it.

   He chunked the firewood into pieces small enough for the stove.

   Similarchop, cube, cut

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A discrete segment of a file or data stream, often one representing audiovisual media; a block.

   The streaming protocol sends each chunk only after the previous one is acknowledged.

   Corrupted chunks caused the audio to stutter during playback.

   Similarblock, segment, packet

   Note

   Computing uses the word for a unit of data that is handled on its own inside a larger file or stream. Paul J Perry's Multimedia developer's guide (1994) describes a RIFF chunk whose first DWORD is a four-character code naming the file's type. Block is the near synonym. Chunk is the usual choice when the segments are labeled pieces of audio or video.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A segment of a comedian's performance, performed as a self-contained portion of the routine.

   The comedian cut a chunk about politics from her late-night set.

   That chunk on parenting kills with younger crowds.

   Similarbit, segment, routine

   Note

   Stand-up comics think of an act as a stack of these. Gene Perret's Successful Stand-up Comedy (1994) advises building two hours of material three minutes at a time, one chunk after another. Comics name them by subject; Jay Sankey mentions a "Papa Beelzebub" chunk. They move them around a set, opening or closing with whichever suits the room.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To break down language or information into conceptual pieces of a manageable size.

   Good instructors chunk complex material so students can absorb it gradually.

   The tutor chunked the grammar rules into themed lessons.

   Similardivide, split, segment, group

   Note

   The figurative verb behind the linguist's word groups and much classroom talk: material is chunked so it can be taken in one piece at a time. It often appears as a participle before a noun. Yong Zhao's Research in Technology and Second Language Education (2005) speaks of syntactically chunked, captioned video.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To deal a large, substantial amount of damage to an opponent in a single attack.

   A fully charged shot can chunk the enemy before they even react.

   He chunked the tank with one well-timed ultimate.

   Note

   Video-game talk for taking a big bite out of a health bar, so that a visible chunk of it vanishes. It works in the passive as easily as the active: he's chunked, and has to regen HP before the next battle. The point is the size of the hit, not the finish. A chunked opponent is hurt, not defeated.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   In linguistics, a group of two or more words that frequently occur together but do not form an idiom.

   Corpus tools can identify the most common chunk in a given genre.

   Spoken English is full of recurring chunks like "do you want to".

   Similarcluster, bundle, phrase

   Note

   Linguists and language teachers use the word for groups of words that recur constantly yet mean just what their parts say: in accordance with, the results of, so far. That last condition separates a chunk from an idiom, whose meaning cannot be built from its words. Bundle and cluster name the same thing. The verb for turning language into such units is chunking for learners.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To remove a piece or chunk from the surface or body of something.

   The collision chunked the curb where the truck mounted it.

   Stray gravel can chunk the paint on a new car.

   Similargouge, chip, nick, damage

   Note

   Where breaking into pieces destroys the whole, this verb takes one piece away and leaves the rest standing, damaged. It usually names both the piece and its source. In E. Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), one character warns another to keep still, "or I might chunk a bit out of you with the spade."

10. 10
    verbdialectalSouthern UStransitive

    To throw something.

    The kids chunked pebbles at the old fence all afternoon.

    Chunk that empty can into the recycling bin.

    Similarthrow, hurl, fling, chuck, toss

    Oppositecatch

    Note

    Southern US slang, and close kin to chuck, which may be where the whole word began. Harper Lee uses it in To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), where the Ewells "chunked at her": the preposition at marks the target. Outside casual or regional speech, throw, hurl or fling is the safer choice.

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