To quickly dip something (like a cookie or biscuit) into liquid, or in basketball, to slam the ball down through the hoop with force.
From Pennsylvania Dutch 'dunken' meaning to dip, derived from German 'dunken.' The word entered American English in the 1800s and gained sports popularity in the 1900s.
The basketball 'dunk' was so revolutionary when Dr. James Naismith invented basketball (1891) that the original rules didn't mention dunks at all—it wasn't until the 1920s that the move became a signature basketball technique.
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