▪ I. chink, n.1
(tʃɪŋk)
[f. chink v.1; = northern kink.]
A convulsive gasp for breath, or spasmodic losing of the breath, as in hooping-cough; a convulsive fit of coughing or laughing.
| [a 1500 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 791 (Nom. Infirmitat.) Hec reuma, a chynge.] 1767 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. iv, My Lord and Lady took such a chink of laughing, that it was some time before they could recover. 1855 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford ix. (D.), The boys were in chinks of laughing. |
▪ II. chink, n.2
(tʃɪŋk)
Also 6 chynk(e, chincke, 7 chinke.
[This and its verb, chink v.2, are known only from the 16th c. There is nothing similar in Teutonic or Romanic.
In sense, chink is exactly equivalent to the earlier word chine (n.1), and indeed its earliest known occurrence is in Berthelet's ed. of a work, where it has been substituted for chine, chynne of earlier MSS. and edd. And, although ‘chynes and chynkes’ occurs in 1545–64, it may be said that, generally, chink took the place of chine, between 1550 and 1580. It thus looks like a new formation on chine; but no satisfactory account of its origin can at present be offered. If chinch, chinse, is, as it appears to be, a variant of the verb, the whole may have to be referred to an earlier date.
Professor Skeat thinks it ‘formed with an added k expressive of ‘diminution’; but examples of this process in 15–16th c. are not known.
Wedgwood would identify it with chink3, with the root notion of a sharp shrill sound, as in the chink of metal, and thence derive the sense of sudden fissure or fracture accompanied by such a sound. He compares the development of crack, ‘sharp report’ and then ‘fissure’, and of other words, in which actions are instinctively expressed by their associated sounds. (Cf. e.g. bang, bomb, bum, chap, clap, pop.) But the historical data are too scanty to establish this.]
1. A fissure caused by splitting; a cleft, rift, or crack; a crevice, gap. = chine n.1 1, 2.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xl. (Tollem. MS.) Also in chines, holes and dennes of þe erþe. c 1450 MS. Bodl. 3738 viii. xxviii, and 1495 W. de W. ibid., In chynnes holes and dennes.] 1535 Ibid. ed. Berthelet viii. xl, The chinkes, holes and dennes of the erthe. 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Man Hh j, Betwene the chines and gynks [ed. 1564 chynes and chynkes] of closely ioynyd bourdes. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 77 See it be..not ful of chincks or cleftes, that the Sunne burne not the tender rootes. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 585 A city swallowed vp by a wide chinke and opening of the earth. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1704) 87 The Water descending..into Chinks and Veins. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 656 The chapt Earth is furrow'd o'er with Chinks. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. (1793) §26 An iron chain..fast jambed into a chink of the rock. 1865 Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. viii. 229 The cliff..is rent into endless chinks and clefts. |
b. A fissure or crack in the skin; a chap.
| 1597 Gerard Herbal i. xl. 60 The chappes and chinkes of the hands. 1748 tr. Vegetius' Distemp. Horses 196 A sore like a Chap or Chink. |
c. fig.
| 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. ix. 28 Any such chink or least crack in Religious worship. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 329 There is no chink or crevice in which it [power] is not lodged. |
2. A long and narrow aperture through the depth or thickness of an object; a slit, an opening in a joint between boards, etc.
| 1552 Huloet, Chinck, clyft, cranny, or creues of earth, stone or woode, thorowe the whiche a man maye loke. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May, Privily he peeped out through a chinck. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 139 The box of devotion, with..two tapers on each side to see the chinke to put money in. 1656 Cowley Misc., Reason vi, There through Chinks and Key-holes peep. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 96 Fire was seen..Thro' some chinks of the door. 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. III. 111/2 The length of the chink of the glottis is very variable. 1862 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 127 Chinks and openings produced by imperfect carpentry. |
| fig. 1831 Landor Andrea of Hungary Wks. 1846 II. 540 That is the chink of time they all drop through. |
▪ III. chink, n.3
(tʃɪŋk)
[An echoic word; used also as a verb, chink v.3]
1. An imitation of the short, sharp sound produced by pieces of metal or glass striking one another; hence a name for this sound.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 276 b, As soone as theyr coyne shall cry chink in your boxes. 1601 R. Yarington Two Lament. Traj. v. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, And chinck of gold is such a pleasing crie. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. i. §18 The chink of their money. 1782 Cowper Truth 140 At chink of bell. 1855 Tennyson Maud x. iii. 7 The chink of his pence. 1872 Holland Marb. Proph. 10 The sharp, metallic chink of grounded arms. |
2. Any sound of the same kind.
| a 1764 Lloyd To Colman, Ere Milton soar'd in thought sublime, Ere Pope refin'd the chink of rhyme. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. I. 165 Half a dozen grasshoppers..make the field ring with their importunate chink. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 299 The ‘fink, chink’ of the finches sounded almost as merrily as before. |
† 3. pl. Pieces of ready money, coins. Obs.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 134 To buie it the cheaper, haue chinkes in thy purse. 1577 Holinshed Descr. Irel. iii, Such as had not redy chinckes, and theruppon forced to run on y⊇ score. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. v. 119 He that can lay hold of her, Shall haue the chincks. 1611 Cotgr., Quinquaille, chinkes, coyne. |
4. A humorous colloquial term for money in the form of coin; ready cash.
Exceedingly common in the dramatists and in songs of the 17th c.; now rather slangy or vulgar.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 101 Til purse doe lack chinke. 1598 Florio, Dindi..a childish word for money, as we say chinke. 1652 C. Stapylton Herodian xv. 129 They shew withall their purses full of Chink. 1653 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. (1876) No. 20. 8 He pay'd the chinque, and freely gave me drink. a 1745 Swift Martial i. lxxxvi. 67 Nay, I'm so happy, most men think, To live so near a man of chink. a 1845 Hood Black Job iv, A Treasurer, of course, to keep the chink. |
5. [from the sound of their note.] a. The Chaffinch; also called chink-chink, chink-chaffey, chinky-chank. dial. b. The Reed Bunting. Sc.
| 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 104. 1864 Atkinson Provinc. Names Birds, Chink, chinky, chaffinch. 1875 Buckland Note in White's Selborne 356 The chiff-chaff is also called the ‘chinky-chank’. |
▪ IV. chink, n.4 dial.
[app. a variant of kink, a twist: cf. the corresp. vb. chink4.]
(See quot.)
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Chink, a sprain on the back or loins, seeming to imply a slight separation of the vertebræ. |
Hence chink-backed a.
| 1868 Daily News 8 Dec., The chink-backed bullock. |
▪ V. chink, n.6 S. Afr.
Short for chinkerinchee. colloq.
| 1949 L. G. Green Land of Aft. v. 73 ‘Chinks’ grow only in the Western Province. 1960 C. Lighton Cape Floral Kingdom xiii. 117 The ‘chinks’ have always been welcome in Britain as a change from the usual run of early winter flowers. |
▪ VI. chink, v.1 dial.
(tʃɪŋk)
Also kink.
[Goes back to an OE. *cincian of which the vbl. n. cincung occurs in 11th c., corresp. to LG. and Du. kinken to cough, to draw the breath with difficulty, app. a LG. nasalized form of *kîk-an, whence MHG. kîchen, mod.G. keichen to gasp, cough. In Eng. the northern dial. form kink is common from the 14th c.; but chink is known only in modern dialect writers or illustrators (Lancashire, Cheshire, etc. Cf. chink n.1, chincough.]
intr. To gasp convulsively for breath, lose one's breath spasmodically in coughing or laughing.
| [c 1050 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 171 Cachinnatio, ceahhetung uel cincung. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 309, I laghe that I kynke. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glasse 46 Hee laughes and kincks like Chrysippus.] 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Ruth xviii. (D.), He chinked and crowed with laughing delight. 1875 Lancash. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chink, to lose one's breath with coughing or laughter. 1884 Holland Chester Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chink, to catch or draw the breath in laughing. When a child first begins to make a noise in laughing, it is often said ‘it fairly chinks again’. |
▪ VII. chink, v.2
(tʃɪŋk)
Also 6 chynken, chincke, 6–7 chinke.
[Belongs to chink n.2, along with which it appears in the 16th c. Cf. also chine v. and chinse v.]
† 1. intr. To open in cracks or clefts, to crack.
| 1552 Huloet, Chynken or gape, as the ground dooth with dryeth. 1580 Baret Alv. C 484 The boate chinketh. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 467 The earth aboue head chinketh, and all at once..setleth and falleth. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. x. 24 Chapping grounds, chinking, or chauming with Cranies. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 332 To chink, as ground doth, rimas agere. |
† 2. trans. To crack or chap. Obs.
| 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 11 Kissing their wal apart where it was chinckt. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 551 This kind of painting ships is so fast and sure, that neither sun will resolue..ne yet wind and weather pierce and chinke it. 1611 Cotgr., Gercer, to chink, chap, chawne (as the North wind does) the face, hands, etc. a 1656 Bp. Hall Seasonable Serm. 15 (L.) The surface..is chopped, and chinked with drought, and burnt up with heat. |
3. To fill (up) chinks, esp. (U.S.) those between the logs in a log-house. (Cf. chinch, chinse.)
| 1822 Scott Nigel vii, The walls, doors, and windows, are so chinked up. 1845 G. W. Kendall Texan Santa Fé Exped. I. i. 25 Our log-house quarters, however, were closely ‘chinked and daubed’. 1881 Scribner's Mag. 79 While the men..build the house, the women chink the cracks. |
▪ VIII. chink, v.3
(tʃɪŋk)
[Corresponds to mod.Du. and EFris. kinken; a word imitating the sound expressed. See chink n.3, and note below.]
1. intr. To emit a short, sharp, ringing sound, as coins or glasses do in striking each other.
| 1589–1611 [see chinking vbl. n.2] 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Quip iii, Then Money came..chinking still. 1676 Hobbes Iliad i. 50 The Arrows chink as often as he jogs. 1682 N. O. Boileau's Lutrin iv. 31 'Tis time To Rise to Matins! Thus, the Bells did Chink! 1798 Southey Ballads, Surgeon's Warning Poems VI. 190 He made the guineas chink. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 83 When thrown into a tumbler, they chinked like lumps of ice. |
b. said of a purse, pocket, etc., containing coins.
| a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Wit at Sev. Weapons iv. i, Enter Ruinous with a purse. Ru. It chinks; make haste! 1817 Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXII. 141 Our pockets chink with the sound of something real. |
2. trans. To cause (things) to make this sound by striking them together; esp. coins.
| 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 189 He chinks his purse, and takes his seat of state. a 1764 Lloyd Milk-Maid Poet. Wks. 1774 II. 52 Oft in her hand she chink'd the pence. 1884 M. E. Braddon Ishmael xii, Chinking a glass against a bottle as a summons to the waiter. |
[Note. The Harl MSS. 221 (c 1440) of Promp. Parv. has the entry ‘Chymyn' or chenken' wythe bellys tintillo’, which, if genuine, carries back the evidence for this word a century earlier. Unfortunately, the reading is not supported by the other MSS., some of which, like the King's Coll. and Winchester, have not the entry, while MS. Addit. 22, 586, like Pynson's and the other printed edd., has ‘chymyn or clynke bellys, tintillo’. This and the treatment of Clynkyn farther on make it possible that chenken is a scribal error for clynken.]
▪ IX. chink, v.4 dial.
[Goes with chink n.4: there appears to have been a Teut. vb. kink- to twist, entangle.]
trans. To give a twist to (the vertebral column); to crook slightly, sprain.
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Chink, to cause such an injury. ‘The fall chinked his back.’ 1831 Youatt Horse x. (1843) 227 Old horses who have..some of the bones of the back or loins anchylosed—united together by bony matter and not by ligament..Such horses are said to be broken-backed or chinked in the chine. 1881 Ouida Village Comm. x, As a packed mule is ‘chinked’ on the march. |
▪ X. chink
obs. form of chinch n.1, bug.
▪ XI. chink
var. of chinch v. Obs. to stint.