What it means
Short for away from keyboard, flagging that you have stepped away and are not really there. In a game it warns the team you are not controlling your character, in chat it just means back in a bit. It has crept into speech too, as in I went afk for an hour.
Usage examples
"Going afk for five, someone is at the door with a parcel."
"He went afk mid-game and the whole team got wiped."
"brb, going afk to rescue my burning toast."
"Don’t queue yet, I’m afk grabbing a drink."
Where it comes from
AFK comes straight from away from keyboard. It popped up in early IRC chats, forums, and online games in the 1990s when people needed a quick way to say they’d stepped off and weren’t actively replying or playing. From there it spread all over internet slang and then into everyday speech.
This expression also appears in
