From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
junket
n 1: dessert made of sweetened milk coagulated with rennet
2: a journey taken for pleasure; "many summer excursions to the
shore"; "it was merely a pleasure trip"; "after cautious
sashays into the field" [syn: excursion, jaunt,
outing, pleasure trip, expedition, sashay]
3: a trip taken by an official at public expense
v 1: go on a pleasure trip
2: provide a feast or banquet for [syn: feast, banquet]
3: partake in a feast or banquet [syn: feast, banquet]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Junket \Jun"ket\, v. i.
To feast; to banquet; to make an entertainment; -- sometimes
applied opprobriously to feasting by public officers at the
public cost.
[1913 Webster]
Job's children junketed and feasted together often.
--South.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Junket \Jun"ket\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Junketed; p. pr. & vb.
n. Junketing.]
To give entertainment to; to feast.
[1913 Webster]
The good woman took my lodgings over my head, and was
in such a hurry to junket her neighbors. --Walpole.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Junket \Jun"ket\, n. [Formerly also juncate, fr. It. giuncata
cream cheese, made in a wicker or rush basket, fr. L. juncus
a rush. See 2d Junk, and cf. Juncate.]
[1913 Webster]
1. A cheese cake; a sweetmeat; any delicate food.
[1913 Webster]
How Faery Mab the junkets eat. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Victuals varied well in taste,
And other junkets. --Chapman.
[1913 Webster]
2. A feast; an entertainment.
[1913 Webster]
A new jaunt or junket every night. --Thackeray.
[1913 Webster]
3. A trip made at the expense of an organization of which the
traveller is an official, ostensibly to obtain information
relevant to one's duties; especially, a trip made by a
public official at government expense. The term is
sometimes used opprobriously, from a belief that such
trips are often taken for private pleasure, and are
therefore a waste of public money; as, a congressional
junket to a tropical country.
[PJC]