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

The Utah Tech player lashed out against Graves after the Broncos player dunked on him during their game on Dec. 3. —Natasha Dye, PEOPLE, 8 Dec. 2025

This question has come to define the music landscape in 2025 — when Lily Allen came for ex David Harbour, when Rosalía elegantly dunked on ex Rauw Alejandro, or when Taylor Swift allegedly sang about Charli XCX. —Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 20 Nov. 2025

Sacramento State’s 6-foot-11, 270-pound senior craves the opportunity to devour defenders in the lane with post moves, or a pass to an open shooter after a double-team, or to thunder-dunk on the run as one regal finisher. —Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 8 Nov. 2025

That’s dunk on Victor Wembanyama, which happened on Friday night. —Zach Harper, New York Times, 27 Oct. 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