clink

[klingk]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR clink ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with or without object)

to make or cause to make a light, sharp, ringing sound: The coins clinked together. He clinked the fork against a glass.

noun

a clinking sound.

Metallurgy. a small crack in a steel ingot resulting from uneven expanding or contracting.

a pointed steel bar for breaking up road surfaces.

Archaic. a rhyme; jingle.

Nearby words

Origin of clink

1275–1325; Middle English clinken, perhaps < Middle Dutch clinken to sound, ring, resound

clink

[klingk]

noun Slang.

a prison; jail; lockup.

Origin of clink

1505–15; after Clink, name of prison in Southwark, London, perhaps < Dutch klink door-latch

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for clink

You can clink your wine glass and deliver an impassioned speech about conquering the demons that kept you confined in the closet.
How to Make It Through Thanksgiving Alive|Lizzie Crocker|November 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sannikov and the other opposition candidates are arrested and thrown in the clink, along with thousands of ordinary citizens.
The Belarus Free Theatre’s Badass Dissident Artists Get the HBO Treatment|Katie Baker|July 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The penalty was what Kozlovsky alluded to without knowledge of its origin: 15 days in the clink, plus a fine.
Putin’s Police Arrest Pussy Riot Again In Court Crackdown|Michael Weiss|February 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
All day long the place rings with the clink of hammers and the clang of metal bars.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the Show|Robert W. Chambers|February 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Try to remember that name as you curse him out on your way to the clink.
Fidel Castro Hates Monopoly & 12 More Reasons to Love It|Caroline Linton|February 6, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He sat, gazing downward, and gradually thought he heard the old voices and the clink of glasses.
Sister Carrie|Theodore Dreiser
The order went rolling down our thin ranks, and again Steve heard the clink and ring of the ramrods.
How Canada was Won|F. S. Brereton
Upon this Clink drew a long breath, and his eyes grew bigger and bigger as he gazed at the half-crown.
Mopsa the Fairy|Jean Ingelow
She had forgot, that, as fools think, The bell is ever sure to clink.
The Bon Gaultier Ballads|William Edmonstoune Aytoun
Through the open window came the clink of spurs and rattling of sabres.
The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 27, March 1893|Various

British Dictionary definitions for clink

clink

verb

to make or cause to make a light and sharply ringing sound

noun

a light and sharply ringing sound

British a pointed steel tool used for breaking up the surface of a road before it is repaired

Word Origin for clink

C14: perhaps from Middle Dutch klinken; related to Old Low German chlanch, German Klang sound

noun

a slang word for prison

Word Origin for clink

C16: after Clink, name of a prison in Southwark, London

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for clink

clink

early 14c., echoic (cf. Dutch klinken, Old High German klingan, German klingen). Related: Clinked; clinking. The noun in the sound sense is from c.1400.

clink

n.2

"prison," 1770s, apparently originally (early 16c.) the Clynke on Clink Street in Southwark, on the estate of the bishops of Winchester. To kiss the clink "to be imprisoned" is from 1580s, and the word and the prison name might be cognate derivatives of the sound made by chains or metal locks (see clink (v.)).

n.1

"sharp, ringing sound made by collision of sonorous (especially metallic) bodies," c.1400, from clink (v.).

clink

verb (used with or without object)

noun

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Origin of clink

clink

noun Slang.

Origin of clink

Examples from the Web for clink

clink

verb

noun

Word Origin for clink

noun

Word Origin for clink

clink

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