▪ I. tink, int. and n.1
(tɪŋk)
[Echoic.]
A representation of the abrupt sound made by striking resonant metal with something hard and light: cf. chink, clink; often reduplicated in imitation of the repetition of such a sound, also with such variations as tink-tank, tink-a-tink, etc. Hence as n. a single sound of this kind; also fig. in reference to rime or verse (cf. jingle). † to cry tink, to make such a sound, to tinkle (obs.).
| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. ii. iii, How it [the poem] chimes, and cries tinke i' the close, diuinely! 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xli, There issued forth a tinkling sound..Tink, tink, tink—clear as a silver bell. a 1847 Eliza Cook Rory O'More vii, Mars chiming in with his rude tink-a-ting..He had turned into cymbals the sword and the shield. 1890 J. H. Stirling Gifford Lect. xii. 239 It was in the heroic ten-syllabled tink-a-tink, and read like Pope's Homer. 1901 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 251 The metallic clang-clank, tink⁓tank of chisel and hammer and stone saw. |
▪ II. tink, n.2 Chiefly Sc.
(tɪŋk)
Colloq. abbrev. of tinker n. 1 b; hence, a foul-mouthed, brawling, or disreputable person.
| 1857 J. Stewart Sketches Sc. Character 74 Nae swearing tink', nor beggar body That tak's a glass. 1894 J. B. Salmond B. Bowden (1922) iv. 36 To sleep on the Common amon' the tinks. 1914 R. B. C. Graham Sc. Stories 19 Ca' ye yon man a gentleman? I just ca' him naething better than a tink. 1939 J. M. Caie 'Twixt Hills & Sea 58 There's kindly, honest, eident fowk There's kyaards an' tinks forbye. 1968 A. MacLeod Dam i. 15 How disgusting it was to..back up a drunken tink like Sorley. 1980 D. K. Cameron Willie Gavin viii. 73 A fear that had driven her..in the hope that she might spot..another human soul (a tink on the road, some shepherd walking the hill fields). |
▪ III. tink, v.1
(tɪŋk)
Forms: 4–6 tynke, 6 tyncke, 6–7 tinck, tinke, 7 tincke, 7 tink.
[Echoic; cf. EFris. tinken.]
1. intr. To emit a metallic sound with very short resonance, e.g. as is done by a cracked bell, but sometimes used as = tinkle; to chink, clink. In quot. 1655 of rime (cf. jingle). ? Obs.
Prov. as the fool thinketh, the bell tinketh: i.e. to the fool the bell seems to say what he wants it to say; referring to a superstitious notion that the tinkling of a bell sometimes gives an oracular monition or answer. Cf. Southey Doctor xxxii. 1, the legend of Dick Whittington, etc.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Cor. xiii. 1, I am maad as bras sownnynge, or a symbal tynkynge. c 1540 J. Heywood Four P.P. B ij, Syr after dryngking, while the shot is tinkynge, Som heades be swiming, but mine wilbe sinking. 1627 J. Carter Plain Expos. 34 Other folkes must thinke as his bels tinke. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. 167 If the verses do but chime and tinck in the close, it is enough to the purpose. |
b. trans. To utter or express by emitting such a sound (with allusion to the proverb: see 1). ? Obs.
| 1624 Bp. R. Montagu Gagg 283 Even as the Bell tinketh whatsoever the foole thinketh. |
2. intr. Of a person: To make such a sound by striking upon metal or other resonant substance. b. tink out (trans.): to express or give out in this way. ? Obs.
| 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 955/1 That the tinkar would haue tinked out of his pannes bottome a reason that woulde at the leaste wise ring a little better then this. 1609 R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. C iij b, Toures tincks vpon his pan drinking. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 894 According as he that tinks on the brazen kettle, pleaseth, so they slack or quicken their flying. |
3. trans. To cause (something) to emit an abrupt metallic sound; sometimes = to tinkle (a bell, etc.). Now rare.
| 1495 [see ting v. 1]. 1532 Henryson's Test. Cres. 144 (ed. Thynne) Cupyde the kynge tynkyng [ed. Charteris (1593) ringand] a syluer bel. c 1537 Thersytes in Four O. Pl. (1848) 80 Mercolfe monyles..Tyncke wyll the tables thoughe he there not tary. 1968 B. Hines Kestrel for Knave 168 The glass shone. He tinked it with his nails, tapped it with a knuckle, then rapped it with his knuckles. |
Hence ˈtinking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1382 [see sense 1]. 1530 Palsgr. 281/2 Tynkynge, the sowndyng of metalls, whan they be strycken togyder, tintyn. 1610 Boys Expos. Dom. Epist. & Gosp. Wks. (1622) 205 Wee were but as a sounding brasse, or as a tincking cymball. |
▪ IV. tink, v.2 ? Obs.
Also 5 tynky.
[Goes with tinker n., of which, if its history could be traced farther back, it may be the source; but it may also be a back-formation from tinker.]
trans. To mend, solder, rivet (rarely, to make) pots and pans, as a tinker. Hence ˈtinking vbl. n.
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 576/39 Crusto, to tynky. Crustator, a tynkere. c 1500 World & Child (1905) 179 Art thou any craftsman? Yea sir, I can bind a sieve and tink a pan. 1565 Harding in Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 525 Tinkers and Tapsters..what should they doe there [at the General Council]? For there is no tinking, nor tipling. 1825 Jamieson, To Tink, v.a., to rivet, as including the idea of the noise made in the act of rivetting; a Gipsy word, Roxb. |
[Note. L. crusto meant ‘to cover with a rind, shell, crust, embossing, plaster-work’. It is not easy to apply this to a tinker's work, unless perh. in the sense of ‘to cover with a plate or patch’, or ? ‘with tin’ or ‘with solder’. Identity of ‘tink’ = crustare, with tink v.1 seems unthinkable.]
▪ V. tink, v.3
(tɪŋk)
Repr. dial. or foreign pronunc. of think v.2
| 1767 ‘A. Barton’ Disappointment i. ii. 53, I put too much confidence in dose I tought my friends, and dey deceib'd me. 1801 T. Tenney Female Quixotism II. xi. 117 How cou'd I tink, ma'am, it was John, in massa chamber? 1821 J. F. Cooper Spy II. xii. 186 ‘I don't tink he look a bit like me,’ said Caesar. 1916 E. O'Neill Bound East for Cardiff in Provincetown Plays 1st Ser. 7 Yust tink of it! 1933 M. Lowry Ultramarine i. 20, I tink you are very much English all the same. 1944 in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict. 637 ‘I never t'ought it would happen... I have to keep t'inkin' about de dough I'm gettin',’ mumbled Bill in his best Brooklynese. 1973 Nation (Barbados) 25 Nov. 1/1 Yuh tink it easy? |