1803 Balance (Hudson, N.Y.) 8 Mar. 75/3 Even in New England, there is some timber so punky that the French saw might easily pass through it, particularly the little state of Rhode Island.

1872 W. S. Huntington Road-master's Assistant 117 A bridge may..have a small knot partially decayed, or ‘punky’, as it is termed.

a1876 H. Bushnell in Life & Lett. (1880) x. 209 The fire is punky and only smokes.

1900 Arizona Republican 1 Mar. 5/3 The Pacific coast fruit [sc. grapefruit] is light weight, pithy, and punky.

1955 Sun (Baltimore) 9 Aug. 16/8 All of the punky and weak wood was removed and a glass and resin putty applied to smooth out the sleek lines.

1968 C. Helmericks Down Wild River North ii. xxiv. 386 We are seated..around a smudgy, punky fire.

1981 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 3 Apr. 20 The trees..bear so much fruit in the fall that nobody worries about the punky ones.

2004 N. Flynn Another Bullshit Night in Suck City ii. 159 As we poke at the wood we realize that in certain key places much of it's punky, needing to be replaced.

1859 H. D. Thoreau Jrnl. 22 Jan. in Writings (1906) XI. vii. 423 The musquash-hunter..dreaming of..the..pile of dead rats that will weigh down his boat.., when he will return..to his hut with an appetite for his supper and for much sluggish (punky) social intercourse with his fellows.

1886 Harper's Mag. Dec. 105/2 George's mother's folks did have a kind of a punky spot somewhere in their heads.

1904 N.Y. Times 5 May 8 Written by another man Mr Austin would doubtless find these verses as amusing as the rest of us do—would appreciate their punky pretentiousness.

1940 E. B. White Compost in One Man's Meat (1982) 132 The punky spots in the character of free men will have to be cut out before it is too late.

1896 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Gaz. 24 May 1/5 Almost every one of the five was a punky little place hit in which luck was as conspicuous as skill.

1906 H. J. O'Higgins Don-a-dreams 140 He talked a lot of punky cant—about doing it for my own good. He's a snivelling codfish, anyway.

1969 Los Angeles Times 30 Mar. (Calendar section) 32/4 We watch a naive young man suffering the brutal attentions of a punky roommate to avoid a gang assault.

2003 Spokesman Rev. (Spokane, Washington) (Nexis) 9 Oct. v14 By the time he's a senior, he's going to be an awesome player. He's already good, and he's just a punky little freshman.

1971 Phonograph Record Dec. 22/2 ‘Legal Matter’ becomes more interesting too, refreshing in its punky attitude.

1976 Zigzag Oct. 20/2 Dee Dee's probably the punkiest member of the group [sc. the Ramones].

1984 Listener 29 Mar. 32/3 The sisters down at the..Women's Centre are all either blonde bombshells in donkey jackets or punky dykes in leg-warmers.

1998 A. O'Hanlon Talk of Town (1999) ii. i. 90 Instead of an orchestra, a punky band called the Golden Horde provided the ‘entertainment’.

2003 New Yorker 8 Sept. 15/2 Recorded the entirety of ‘Whip it On’, their début EP of noirish, punky pop, in the key of B-flat major.