dunk on

verb

dunked on; dunking on; dunks on

transitive verb

1

: to make a dunk shot over (an opposing player)

[San Antonio] Spurs great Manu Ginobili … stars in a new social media video sharing the game thoughts that ran through his head as he dunked on Yao Ming, one of the NBA's tallest players ever.

—Madalyn Mendoza

[Malcolm] Brogdon showed the Bucks right away that they got the steal of the draft, as he had an impressive rookie season, even dunking on LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in one game.

—Matt Newton

2

slang : to publicly make fun of (someone or something) especially on social media

Justin Bieber decided he was up for a fresh new hairstyle (or just got sick of people dunking on him) and ditched the dreadlocks.

—Samantha Wilson

… getting dunked on on social media isn't the same as getting canceled (whatever that means). It's more like dropping your tray of food in the lunchroom in middle school and everyone points and laughs at you …

—Jason Aten

[Alex] Walker, a Democrat, is hoping that any attention he draws, whether people celebrate his message or dunk on him, will help transform him into an Internet phenomenon and defeat a Republican firebrand.

—Taylor Lorenz and David Weigel

An inflammatory tweet would be retweeted by supporters, dunked on by critics, and amplified by journalists, before making its way to website homepages, cable news … and newspaper front pages.

—David A. Graham

Examples of dunk on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Karaban responded with a 3-pointer and Reed attacked the rim for his first of four dunks on the evening, which poured gasoline on a crowd that had yet to take a seat. —Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant, 26 Feb. 2026

Booth, a 6-foot-10 junior who spent a season at Notre Dame and then Illinois, already had 14 points by halftime — four above his season average — and finished with a career-high 22, including a posterized flying dunk on Miles Heide. —Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026

Everyone loves to dunk on a show that's no longer relevant, and there's not much honesty to be found online about where, exactly, ANTM belongs in fashion and pop culture history. —Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 17 Feb. 2026

Bryant had a between-the-legs dunk on his first attempt, which got him perfect scores, but his second dunk took too many tries to complete, which ultimately cost him the win. —Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 15 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for dunk on

• anton
• argon
• axon
• baronne
• baryon
• baton
• boron
• buisson
• bygone
• capon
• cardon
• chiffon