Also 7 -cat. [f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To hold a banquet or feast; to make merry with good cheer; also (chiefly U.S.) to join in a picnic; to go on a pleasure excursion.
1555. [see JUNKETING vbl. sb.].
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, II. xiv. 192. If a female child be borne there is small solemnitie only … some yong wenches stand about the cradle, and lift it vp with the child in it, and name it … and after this they iunket together.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 350. A creature … rather made to wonder at, than to juncket on.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 86. A sad thing it is, that … when some are fasting, others should be juncating.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., I. II. vi. 80. The Fire was in the middle of the Room, about which the Family did make Merry and Junket.
a. 1745. Swift, Direct. Servants, i. General, Whatever good bits you can pilfer in the day, save them to junket with your fellow-servants at night.
1821. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 205. The same party junket on Friday to Chiswick.
1874. Greville, Mem. Geo. IV. (1875), III. xxiv. 122. The Chancellor had intended to go junketting on the Rhine.
2. trans. To entertain, feast. rare.
1745. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 64. The good woman … was in such a hurry to junket her neighbours.
