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

His second-half, no-look pass to Aaron Gordon for a dunk on the baseline may have been the best play made in the NBA on Wednesday night. —Tony Jones, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2025

The Chinese company’s week of blowout news should amount to a rather satisfying dunk on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who once scoffed at the idea of BYD as a competitor and who is currently a rather unpopular member of the Trump administration. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 25 Mar. 2025

All of his best highlights seem to portend defeat for his team, including other poster dunks on Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Houston’s Cam Whitmore this season. —Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 23 Mar. 2025

The officers bumble around for answers, clueless and repeatedly dunked on by students until Bascombe’s son, Adam (Amari Bacchus), finally pulls him aside. —Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025

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