onkus

English

Etymology

Unknown. Australian from 1903, New Zealand from 1909. Compare slightly earlier onky.[1]

Adjective

onkus (comparative more onkus, superlative most onkus)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) Inferior; unpleasant; unacceptably bad.
    • 1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, page 101:
      The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]
  2. (New Zealand, slang, rare, obsolete) Good; acceptable; okay.

References
  1. Jonathon Green (2024) “onkus adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams
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