Other forms: junks
Junk is worthless old things nobody wants. A pile of junk, junk shop, clear out the junk.
One person's junk is another's collection, which is what junk shops trade on. Junk food, junk mail and junk bonds all use it as a modifier meaning low quality. Note that a junk is also a Chinese sailing ship, which is a completely separate word; and that the original junk was old rope on a ship.
1nounjunkWorthless old things nobody wants.
“The garage is full of junk that we should have thrown away years ago.”
junk is worthless things.
Middle English junk meant an old cable or rope, of unknown origin. The Chinese sailing ship is a different word.
Middle English
junk
English, today
junk
Built from
From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of unknown origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from jonc, from iuncus; however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA