▪ I. clink, n.1
(klɪŋk)
[Goes with clink v.1 Cf. Du. klink.]
1. a. A sharp abrupt ringing sound, clearer and thinner than a clank, as of small metallic bodies or glasses struck together.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 5853 The clynke & þe clamour claterit in þe aire. a 1553 Udall Royster D. iii. iii. (Arb.) 45 He will go darklyng to his graue, Neque lux, neque crux, neque mourners, neque clinke. 1562 Phaër æneid viii. (R.) Yngot gaddes with clashing clinks, In blustrying forges blowne. 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 234, I heard the clinke, and fall of Swords. 1781 Cowper Truth 140 Duly at clink of bell to morning prayers. 1857 Holland Bay Path xxviii. 347 Each drop struck the surface with a metallic, musical clink. 1859 Max Müller Sc. Lang. Ser. ii. iii. 103 The lower notes are mere hums, the upper notes mere clinks. |
† b. to cry clink: to emit or produce a clink, to have a response. Obs.
| 1607 Chapman Bussy D'Ambois Plays 1873 II. 10 No man riseth by his reall merit But when it cries Clincke in his Raisers spirit. 1637 W. Cartwright Royall Slave (N.), And make our hard irons cry clink in the close. |
2. Mere assonance of rime; jingle.
| a 1716 South Serm. (1717) VI. 101 The senceless, insignificant clink and sound of a few, popular misapplied Words. 1785 Burns 2nd Epist. Davie v, Some idle plan O' rhymin clink. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. I. 472 Such a construction..produces a regularly returning clink in the period, which tires the ear. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 78 Some other poet's clink ‘Thetis and Tethys’. |
3. a. Used imitatively of the sharp note of certain birds: hence stone-clink, provincial name for the Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola).
| 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 57 Stonechat..Stone-clink. 1885 St. Jas'. Gaz. 17 Aug. 6/2 The ‘clink’ of the stonechat. |
b. Sc. dial. A tell-tale (Jamieson).
4. dial. A smart sharp blow. [So Du. klink.]
| 1722 W. Hamilton Wallace 35 (Jam.) The yeomen..lighted down; The first miss'd not a clink out o'er his crown. 1820 Scott Abbot xv, We must take a clink as it passes, so it is not bestowed in downright ill-will. 1881 Isle of W. Gloss., Clink, a smart blow. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Clink, a smack or blow. 1888 in Berksh. Gloss. |
5. colloq. Sc. Money, coin, hard cash; = chink 4.
| 1729 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. 14 The Warld is rul'd by Asses, And the Wise are sway'd by Clink. 1789 Burns Let. J. Tennant, May ye get..Monie a laugh, and monie a drink, An' aye enough o' needfu' clink. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. II. 203 Such young ladies as were particularly beautiful..and had the clink. |
6. An internal crack in a block of metal caused by uneven contraction or expansion during cooling or heating.
| 1925 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXI. 150 The well-known phenomena called cooling clinks or cooling cracks. 1948 A. V. Jobling in H. W. Baker Mod. Workshop Technol. I. i. iv. 88 If the tension stresses reach a sufficiently high value while the inside is comparatively cold and lacking in ductility, an internal fracture or clink will result. |
▪ II. clink, n.2
[The evidence appears to indicate that the name was proper to the Southwark ‘Clink’, and thence transferred elsewhere; but the converse may have been the fact. If the name was originally descriptive, various senses of clink, e.g. ‘to fasten securely’ (cf. ‘to get the clinch’, clinch n. 7), might have given rise to it. Cf. also clink n.4]
The name of a noted prison in Southwark; later used elsewhere (esp. in Devon and Cornwall) for a small and dismal prison or prison-cell, a lock-up. Now used generally for: prison, cells.
| 1515 Barclay Egloges i. (1570) A. v/4 Then art thou clapped in the Flete or Clinke. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 1464/1 He was..had to the Clinke, and after to the Counter in the Poultrie. 1575 Gascoigne Herbs Wks. (1587) 171 The rest was close in clinke. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 325 Our author..was committed first to the Gatehouse in Westminster, and afterwards to the Clink in Southwark. 1761 London & Environs II. 147 Clink prison in Clink Street, belongs to the liberty of the Bishop of Winchester, called the Clink liberty..It is a very dismal hole where debtors are sometimes confined. 1777 Howard Prisons Eng. 380 (Plymouth Town Gaol) Two rooms for Felons..One..the Clink, seventeen feet by eight, about five feet and a half high, with a wicket in the door seven inches by five to admit light and air. 1836 Marryat Japhet lviii, I was thrust into the clink, or lock-up house, as the magistrates would not meet that evening. 1863 Sala Capt. Dang. I. iv. 112 A Clink, where wantons are sent to be whipped and beat hemp. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., Clink, a small room where vagabonds and drunkards are confined. 1890 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 20 And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal's eye. 1906 Daily Chron. 28 Aug. 4/7 Escorting erring defaulters of his own creation to clink. 1919 War Slang in Athenæum 25 July 664/2 ‘Clink’, punishment cells. 1934 G. B. Shaw Too True iii. 82 Soldiers that try to make storytelling do for service end in the clink. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) xxi. 355 They'll only dock my pay or shove me in clink. |
▪ III. clink, n.3 ? colloq.
A very small poor ale, brewed chiefly for the use of harvest labourers.
| 1863 Sala Capt. Dang. I. ix. 266 A miserable hovel of an inn..where they ate their rye-bread and drank their sour Clink. |
▪ IV. † clink, n.4 Obs. rare—1.
[Meaning and origin uncertain.
The Glossary to first ed., professedly based on Spenser's authority, explains it as ‘key-hole’; for the word in such a sense no etymology is known, and the reference to clicket is quite erroneous. Some identify the word with Du. klink, Ger. and Da. klinke, Sw. klinka, (also Fr. clinche, clenche) ‘latch of a door’. Cf. also ‘clink, a small or fine crack’. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 1888.]
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 251 Tho creeping close behind the Wickets clincke, Preuelie, he peeped out through a chinck. [E. K. Gloss., Clincke, a keyhole: Whose diminutiue is clicket, vsed of Chaucer for a key.] |
▪ V. † clink, n.5 Obs. rare.
By-form of clinch.
| 1634 Leicester in Earl Strafforde Lett. I. 224 To conclude with an Oxford Clink. |
▪ VI. clink, v.1
(klɪŋk)
Forms: 4 klynk(e, 4–6 clynk(e, 6–7 clinck(e, clinke, 6– clink.
[A weak vb. found, with the n. of same form, only from 14th c. Du. has a strong vb. of identical form, klinken (MDu. klincken and klinghen) ‘to sound, clink, ring, tinkle’, for which HG. has the str. klingen, OHG. chlingan, LG. klingen, EFris. klingen (klung, klungen) ‘to ring, sound’, and klinken (klunk, klunken) ‘to clink glasses’, WFris. klinckjen, klingjen. Also Sw. klinga str. (OSw. also klinga, klinka weak), Da. klinge str. ‘to sound, ring’, klinke ‘to clink glasses’. Thus there appears a double stem-form, kling-, klink-, evidently (like the Lat. and Gr. words cited under clang) of echoic origin; one of these forms was prob. a later modification (? perhaps expressing a variety of sound); the evidence appears to favour the priority of kling-. No trace of either form has yet been found in OE. (where there is a strong vb. clingan in an entirely different sense: see cling v.), and thus we cannot tell whether ME. clinken went back with the Du. to an OLG. *klinkan, or was of later adoption or origination in England. Cf. the still later clank, and its correspondence with Du. klank. The sense-development is greatly parallel to that of clank; the transition from sound to sudden action is a common one, esp. in Sc.; cf. bang, boom, bum, chop, clank, clap, pop, etc.
(Rare by-forms are clenk, clinch, cling.)]
1. a. intr. To make the sharp abrupt metallic sound described under clink n.1
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 336 They herde a belle clynke Biforn a cors was caried to his graue. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 82 Clynkyn, v. clyppyn [K. clynkyn, v. chymyn]. 1513 Douglas æneis ix. xiii. 67 Hys bos helm rang and soundit, Clynkand abowt hys half heddis with dyn. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 4 That metal clinketh well. 1684 H. More Answer 325 That old Proverb, As the fool thinketh, so the bell clinketh. c 1720 Prior 2nd Hymn Callim. to Apollo Poems (1754) 244 The sever'd bars Submissive clink against their brazen Portals. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cxxi, Thou hear'st the village hammer clink. 1864 Skeat tr. Uhland's Poems 360 Merrily clink the beakers tall. |
b. intr. To ring as a report. Sc.
| 1825–76 Jamieson s.v., ‘It gaed clinkin through the town.’ |
2. trans. To cause (anything) to sound in this way; to strike together (glasses or the like) so that they emit a sharp ringing sound.
| c 1386 Chaucer Shipman's Prol. 24, I shal clynkyn [v.r. blenken, klynken] yow so mery a belle That I shal wakyn al this companye. 1600 Fairfax Tasso ix. lxv. (R.), Some howle, some weepe, some clinke their iron chaines. 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 71 And let me the Cannakin clinke, clinke. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 34 ¶13 Anthea saw some sheep, and heard the wether clink his bell. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. 9 Some wags..clinked their glasses and rapped their sticks. |
3. a. intr. Of words, etc.: To jingle together, to rime.
| 1729 Swift Direct. Birthday Song, Yet I must except the Rhine, Because it clinks to Caroline. 1785 Burns 2nd Epist. Davie iv, For me, I'm on Parnassus' brink Rivin' the words to gar them clink. a 1800 Lloyd On Rhyme (R.), How charmingly he makes them [couplets] clink. |
b. trans. To make (words or verses) jingle.
| 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 25 Ye see I clink my verse wi' rhime. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xl, They have done nothing but clink rhymes..for years together. |
4. to clink it is said in Sc. of birds uttering their notes. (Cf. clank v. 2.)
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 236 The merll, the mavys, and the nychtingale, With mery notis myrthfully furth brest, Enforsing thame quha mycht do clynk it best. |
5. intr. To move with a clinking sound, made either by the feet or by articles carried or worn.
| 1818 Scott Leg. Montrose iv, ‘Here's the fourth man coming clinking in at the yett.’ a 1863 Thackeray Mr. & Mrs. Berry ii, They clink over the asphalte..with lacquered boots. |
6. trans. ‘To beat smartly, to strike with smart blows’ (Jamieson). Cf. clink n.1 4, clank v. 7.
7. Sc. a. Expressing quick, sharp, abrupt actions (such as produce a clinking sound; cf. clap v. IV.); e.g. clink away, to snatch away; clink down, to clap down, put down sharply; clink on, to clap on; clink up, to seize up rapidly.
Some of these may be compared with the corresponding use of clank v. 6, clink down being a sharper and less noisy act than clank down; but in most there seems to be an instinctive association with cleek, click, clitch, to clink away, clink up, being to cleek away or up, with a sudden and deft action.
| 1718 Ramsay Christ's Kirk iii. xii, A creel bout fou of muckle steins They clinked on his back. 1791 A. Wilson Eppie & Deil Poet. Wks. 85 Clootie, shapet like a burd, Flew down..And clinket Eppie's wheel awa'. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxxviii, ‘Ane o' the clerks..will clink down, in black and white, as muckle as wad hang a man.’ ibid. xl, ‘When she has clinkit hersell down that way..she winna speak a word.’ |
b. Also intr. (for refl.)
| 1785 Burns Holy Fair xi, Happy is that man..Wha's ain dear lass..Comes clinkin down beside him! 1858 Ramsay Remin. Ser. i. (1860) 92 Before the sale cam on, in God's gude providence, she just clinkit aff. 1834 Wilson Tales of Borders (1863) I. 156 Ye'll just clink down beside me. |
8. To cause (metal) to fracture internally. Cf. clink n.1 6.
| 1929 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXIX. 291 The first ingot was undoubtedly quite extensively clinked. 1930 Engineering 19 Sept. 371/2 Very high internal stresses which frequently led to transverse clinking in the centre of the ingot. 1948 A. V. Jobling in H. W. Baker Mod. Workshop Technol. I. i. iv. 88 Clinking is a defect which does not result from any fault in the actual forging operation but from too rapid heating or cooling of a large mass of steel. 1953 D. J. O. Brandt Manuf. Iron & Steel xxviii. 204 Ingots of steel containing over 0 · 40% carbon and alloy steel ingots are easily clinked (cracked internally). |
▪ VII. clink, v.2 north. Eng. and Sc.
(klɪŋk)
Also 5 cleyngk, 6 clenk.
[Northern form corresp. to clinch, clench; identical in form and sense with Du., EFris., LGer. klinken, Da. klinke, Sw. klinka.
Clink is prob. simply a later phonetic form of clenk = clench:—OE. clęnc(e)an, the change of -eng, -enk, to -ing, -ink, being usual in ME.; cf. think from OE. þencan, also stink, stench, blink, blench, bink, bench, earlier benk; also Inglish = English. But klink might be the Danish or LGer. word, and clinch a result of its action upon clench.]
trans. To clench, rivet, fix or fasten with nails or rivets. Hence clinked ppl. a.
| 1440 [see clench v.1 1]. c 1460 Towneley Myst., Crucifixio 219 For to clynk and for to dryfe Therto I am fulle prest. a 1568 Sempill Ballates (1872) 230 A littill Fleminge berge Off clenkett wark. 1583 Stanyhurst Poems (Arb.) 138 An armoure, With gould ritchlye shrined, wheare scaals be ful horriblye clincked. c 1768 Ross Rock & Wee Pickle Tow (Jam.), A pair of grey hoggers well clinked benew. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §51 Double plank, cross and cross, and clinked together. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxiv, Yonder gay Chief..will soon find on his shoulders with what sort of blows I clink my rivets! |