/klɪŋk/
OriginFrom Middle English clinken, from Old English *clincan (compare clynnan, clynian (“to sound; resound”)), from Proto-Germanic *klinganą (“to sound”).
Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen. Related to cling (sound) and clang. May be further related to call.
Perhaps of onomatopoeic origin, as metal against metal.
- onomatopoeicThe sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
“You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.”
“1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V
When Frere had come down, an hour before, the prisoners were all snugly between their blankets. They were not so now; though, at the fir”
- Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
- dated, slangA prison.
“If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.”
- ambitransitiveTo make a clinking sound; to make a sound of metal on metal or glass on glass; to strike materials such as metal or glass against one another.
“The hammers clinked on the stone all night.”
“The broken sheds look'd sad and strange, / Unlifted was the clinking latch, / Weeded and worn the ancient thatch / upon the lonely moated grange.”
“On the other side: the rich, beautiful tapestry of WASP culture that constituted Levis's life—friends playing horseshoes at backyard cocktail parties, where girls swanned in chaise longues, clinking t”
- dated, humorousTo rhyme.
- Scotland, transitiveTo clinch; to rivet.
Formsclinks(plural) · clinks(present, singular, third-person) · clinking(participle, present) · clinked(participle, past) · clinked(past) · klink(alternative) · Clinks(plural)