rink
Americannoun
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rinks
plural
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a smooth expanse of ice for ice-skating, often artificially prepared and inside a building or arena.
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a smooth floor, usually of wood, for roller-skating.
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a building or enclosure for ice-skating or roller-skating; skating arena.
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an area of ice marked off for the game of curling.
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a section of a bowling green where a match can be played.
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a set of players on one side in a lawn-bowling or curling match.
noun
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an expanse of ice for skating on, esp one that is artificially prepared and under cover
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an area for roller skating on
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a building or enclosure for ice skating or roller skating
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bowls a strip of the green, usually about 5–7 metres wide, on which a game is played
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curling the strip of ice on which the game is played, usually 41 by 4 metres
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(in bowls and curling) the players on one side in a game
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rink
1325–75; Middle English ( Scots ) renk area for a battle, joust, or race, apparently < Middle French renc rank 1
Explanation
Use the noun rink for an indoor area where you can ice skate or roller skate, or for the surface itself. If skating around and around to blasting music is your thing, head to a rink. An ice rink has an ice-covered surface, benches for changing from shoes to skates, and often places to buy snacks. Roller rinks have skates for rent, a hard surface to skate on, and loud music. Rink first appeared in English in the 14th century, from the Scottish dialect. Though it comes from the Old French renc, "line or row," it was mixed up with ring at some point and came to describe the ring-shaped ice rink.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
German fans mostly gathered in an area that typically serves as an ice skating rink but has been converted to resemble an indoor beer garden, with benches in front of a large screen.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
It’s ironic because my wife, her dream trip is to go to Iceland the country, and the closest we’re getting to that right now is an ice-skating rink.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
In the winter, there’s an ice rink; in the summer, live music outdoors.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026
By 1953 one theater that was showing “Mr. Scoutmaster,” starring Clifton Webb, even featured an ice-skating show on its custom-built rink.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
The next day they had the piano moved down into the basement at one end of the ice rink.
From "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater
Today, Black Bear is the largest owner-operator of hockey rinks in the country—it now runs almost 50 across 12 states.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Hockey rinks could be lumped in provided robots can skate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
Since its release in the UK on 11 January, the show has led to a wave of first-time fans flooding into ice rinks from Dumfries to Glasgow.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
Bikes are a staple at Olympic rinks here, as skaters use them to warm up, cool down and get some easy miles done.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
“But we don’t have no roller rinks round here, Binks. So it don’t make much sense to get skates.”
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
