clink

See also: Clink

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /klɪŋk/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

From Middle English clinken, from Old English *clincan (compare clynnan, clynian (“to sound; resound”)), from Proto-Germanic *klinganą (“to sound”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *glengʰ- (“to sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *gal(o)s-, *glōs-, *golH-so- (“voice, cry”), related to call. Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen.

Maybe of onomatopoeic origin; as metal against metal.

Noun

clink (plural clinks)

Examples
The clink of metal being dropped on the ground(file)
  1. (onomatopoeia) The 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 first clink of the bolts, they would be back again in their old positions, to all appearances sound asleep.
Translations

Verb

clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)

  1. To 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.
    • Tennyson
      the clinking latch
  2. (humorous, dated) To rhyme.
Translations

Etymology 2

From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.

Noun

clink (plural clinks)

  1. (slang) Jail or prison, after the Clink prison in Southwark, London. Used in the phrase in the clink.
    If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.
  2. Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
Synonyms
  • See also Thesaurus:jail
Derived terms
  • in the clink

Anagrams

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