Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb US, politics, often pejorative To defeat a judicial nomination through a concerted attack on the nominee's character, background and philosophy.
  • verb To misconfigure, especially a computer or other complex device.
  • verb To break or damage.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the 1987 United States Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bork.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • (An eponym from Judge Robert Bork) U.S. political slang to defame or vilify (a person) systematically, especially in the mass media, with the aim of preventing his or her appointment to public office; to obstruct or thwart (a person) in this way.

    May 12, 2008

  • Also used as an alternation for broken, as in, "This code is borked".

    May 13, 2008

  • Really? Very interesting usage. Reminds me of something, can't quite put my finger on it *thinking*

    May 13, 2008

  • It reminds me of the Swedish chef on the Muppets.

    Bork bork bork!

    May 13, 2008

  • Noobly noot, noobly noot!

    May 13, 2008

  • I like the variation b0rken.

    May 13, 2008

  • Reminds me of some Jakarta slang in Indonesia where there was (somewhat) random reordering of letters within conventional words, but typically not the first the letter. The word was then thought to be generally recognisable based upon the utility of the first letter and the 'crossworld puzzle' ability of others to reorder the remaining letters. Often accompanied by reversal of last syllable.

    eg. bokap - father

    derived from 'bapak', father

    Probably originated as a way for drug addicts to avoid detection.

    May 13, 2008

  • remembers about [verlan, goes off to add]

    edit: comes back embarrassed to find she already has

    May 14, 2008

  • JM now knows that an object that functions correctly without meaningful results is a bork! How many borks do you know?

    February 1, 2009