junket

Meanings

1. A basket.
2. A type of cream cheese, originally made in a rush basket; later, a food made of sweetened curds.
3. A delicacy.
4. A feast or banquet.
5. A pleasure trip; a journey made for feasting or enjoyment, now especially a trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment.
6. Ellipsis of press junket.
7. A gaming room for which the capacity and limits change daily, often rented out to private vendors who run tour groups through them and give a portion of the proceeds to the main casino.

1. To attend a junket; to feast.
2. To go on a junket; to travel.
3. To regale or entertain with a feast.

Etymology

From Middle English jonket (“basket made of rushes”), from Medieval Latin iuncta, possibly from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”) and therefore a possible doublet of jonquil. Meaning shifted to “feast or banquet” by 1520s, probably via the notion of a picnic basket. This in turn led to the sense of “pleasure trip” (1814), and then to specifically to “trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment” by 1886 in American English.

Translations