gunk

Kotaro Isakaの小説 "The Mantis" を読み終えました、あまり面白い小説だとは思いませんでしたが、図書館には伊坂幸太郎の小説がもう一冊あったのでこの際読んでみることにしました。題名は "Bullet Train" で、 "The Mantis" よりページ数が倍ほどあります。早速引用します。

He enters the gangway. A recess with a sink is on the left, and he pauses in front of the mirror. Pulls the curtain shut on the small vanity area. Then looks at his reflection. Hair unkempt, beads of gunk in the corners of his eyes,. Whiskers sticking out at odd angles, even the downy fuzz on his face seems coarse.

"gunk" は目の隅にあるので目ヤニかなと思いますが、辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: You use gunk to refer to any soft sticky substance, especially if it is unpleasant.: The gunk was coming out like toothpaste from a tube.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: any thick, sticky, unpleasant substance: There was a lot of gunk on my bike chain.
・Vocabulary.com: Gunk is a gloppy, sticky substance, like the gunk you scrape off the soles of your shoes or the gunk at the bottom of a pond.
Gunk is an American English slang term that was first used around 1950 to mean "viscous substance." The word comes from a liquid soap made in Massachusetts starting in the 1930s that was also called Gunk. If you buy Gunk today, it's a cleaning product used for car engines (and sold by a company known as GUNK). In general though, gunk is a great word for anything messy, slimy, or grimy.

目ヤニとは限っていないのですね。