"junk drink" meaning in English

See junk drink in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈdʒʌŋk dɹɪŋk/ Forms: junk drinks [plural]
Etymology: Modeled after junk food; from junk (“worthless or of poor quality”) + drink. The term extends the metaphor of low-quality or unhealthy items from food to beverages, highlighting lack of nutritional value or potential harm. Etymology templates: {{af|en|junk|drink|t1=worthless or of poor quality}} junk (“worthless or of poor quality”) + drink Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} junk drink (countable and uncountable, plural junk drinks), {{tlb|en|occasionally|pejorative}} (occasionally derogatory)
  1. (informal) A beverage with little or no nutritional value, often high in sugar, caffeine, or additives. Tags: countable, informal, uncountable Synonyms: junk beverage
    Sense id: en-junk_drink-en-noun-dDd0cCmY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 49 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 61 39 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49
  2. (especially) Any alcoholic beverage, considered harmful, addictive, or of low quality. Tags: countable, especially, uncountable Related terms: junk food, soft drink, energy drink, alcohol
    Sense id: en-junk_drink-en-noun-84FH0mdZ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 49 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49

Inflected forms

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        "2": "junk",
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      "name": "af"
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  "etymology_text": "Modeled after junk food; from junk (“worthless or of poor quality”) + drink. The term extends the metaphor of low-quality or unhealthy items from food to beverages, highlighting lack of nutritional value or potential harm.",
  "forms": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "text": "Last year, as the idea of implementing soda taxes heated up, I noticed the junk drink industry dusting off the same playbook. […] Statewide, 75% believe regularly consuming junk drinks like Coke, Pepsi, or Mountain Dew “definitely increases” a person’s chance of becoming overweight or obese.",
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          "ref": "2009 July 20, “Junk Drinks Becoming an Issue”, in Prepared Foods:",
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          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A beverage with little or no nutritional value, often high in sugar, caffeine, or additives."
      ],
      "id": "en-junk_drink-en-noun-dDd0cCmY",
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        "(informal) A beverage with little or no nutritional value, often high in sugar, caffeine, or additives."
      ],
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          "text": "After years of junk drinks and hangovers, she finally gave up alcohol.",
          "type": "example"
        },
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          "ref": "2021 May 12, “Alcohol and junk food”, in Hello Sunday Morning:",
          "text": "Thinking of alcohol as junk food can bring a new perspective to those who are trying to change their drinking habits, and it can strip away a lot of the glamour that the advertisers and sommeliers have sought to instil in their wares.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Any alcoholic beverage, considered harmful, addictive, or of low quality."
      ],
      "id": "en-junk_drink-en-noun-84FH0mdZ",
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        "(especially) Any alcoholic beverage, considered harmful, addictive, or of low quality."
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          "_dis1": "22 78",
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdʒʌŋk dɹɪŋk/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "junk drink"
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          "text": "Last year, as the idea of implementing soda taxes heated up, I noticed the junk drink industry dusting off the same playbook. […] Statewide, 75% believe regularly consuming junk drinks like Coke, Pepsi, or Mountain Dew “definitely increases” a person’s chance of becoming overweight or obese.",
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        "(informal) A beverage with little or no nutritional value, often high in sugar, caffeine, or additives."
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          "ref": "2021 May 12, “Alcohol and junk food”, in Hello Sunday Morning:",
          "text": "Thinking of alcohol as junk food can bring a new perspective to those who are trying to change their drinking habits, and it can strip away a lot of the glamour that the advertisers and sommeliers have sought to instil in their wares.",
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        "(especially) Any alcoholic beverage, considered harmful, addictive, or of low quality."
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      "ipa": "/ˈdʒʌŋk dɹɪŋk/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "junk drink"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.