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

For Jaquez, a few of those moments came in the first two minutes of Game 1, when Brown spun past Jaquez and threw down a dunk on him just 48 seconds into the game and Jaquez then had his own dunk attempt blocked by Holiday a few possessions later. —Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 21 Apr. 2024

For head coach Aaron Fearne and Milicic, the thought of getting dunked on is irrelevant. —Hunter Bailey, Charlotte Observer, 18 Feb. 2024

The score was tied 50-50 after former Razorback Conner Vanover's putback dunk on Tamar Bates' three-point miss. —Tom Murphy, arkansasonline.com, 25 Feb. 2024

During layup lines before the game Sunday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Jokic was seen dunking on Western Conference teammate Steph Curry, whose back was to Jokic. —Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 18 Feb. 2024

And Trayce Jackson-Davis dunked on the 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama. —Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 11 Mar. 2024

The Sooners led 49-35 when West Virginia's Farrakhan dunked on Oklahoma's 6-foot-10, 275-pound John Hughley IV and was fouled. —Cliff Brunt, USA TODAY, 18 Jan. 2024

Braun in one sequence blocked a shot on one end and dunked on the other. —Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 25 Feb. 2024

Hubris is said to come before the fall, and the swagger with which Mark Zuckerberg dunked on Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro this week is giving critics an acute case of déjà vu. —Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 15 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined at sense 1