name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
clink
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
-
/klɪŋk/
-
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
-
rhymes with -ɪŋk
-
CMU ARPABET: K L IH1 NG K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: onomatopoeic
Examples
- You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.
- 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V When Frere had come down, an hour before, the prisoners were all snugly between their blankets. They were not so now; though, at the first clink of the bolts, they would be back again in their old positions, to all appearances sound asleep.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A prison.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, slang
Examples
- If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To make a clinking sound; to make a sound of metal on metal or glass on glass; to strike materials such as metal or glass against one another.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: ambitransitive
Examples
- The hammers clinked on the stone all night.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To rhyme.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, humorous
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To clinch; to rivet.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: jail, jailhouse, gaol, slammer, poky, pokey
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: correctional institution
Narrower terms: bastille, holding cell, hoosegow, hoosgow, house of correction, lockup, workhouse
noun
Meaning 9
a short light metallic sound
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: chink, click
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sound
verb
Meaning 10
make or emit a high sound
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- tinkling bells
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: tinkle, tink, chink
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sound, go
verb
Meaning 11
make a high sound typical of glass
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- champagne glasses clinked to make a toast
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sound
History
Etymology
From Middle English clinken, from Old English *clincan (compare clynnan, clynian (“to sound; resound”)), from Proto-Germanic *klinganą (“to sound”). Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen. Related to cling (sound) and clang. May be further related to call. Perhaps of onomatopoeic origin, as metal against metal.
From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.
Across languages
Translations
39 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Catalan: dring — sound
- Catalan: trinc — sound
- Chinese Mandarin: 叮当声 — sound
- Czech: cinknutí — sound
- Czech: zacinkání — sound
- Czech: zazvonění — sound
- Ido: tinklo — sound
- Ingrian: kilinä — sound
- Italian: tintinnio — sound
- Portuguese: tinido — sound
- Russian: звон (zvon) — sound
- Spanish: entrechocamiento — sound
- Swedish: klirr — sound
- Swedish: kling — sound
- Bulgarian: дрънча (drǎnča) — make a clinking sound
- Catalan: dringar — make a clinking sound
- Chinese Mandarin: (使)叮当响 — make a clinking sound
- Czech: cinknout — make a clinking sound
- Czech: zacinkat — make a clinking sound
- Czech: zazvonit — make a clinking sound
- Czech: přiťuknout si — make a clinking sound
- Czech: ťuknout si — make a clinking sound
- Finnish: kilahtaa — make a clinking sound
- Greek: τσουγκρίζω (tsougkrízo) — make a clinking sound
- Hungarian: peng — make a clinking sound
- Ido: tinklar — make a clinking sound
- Ingrian: kilissä — make a clinking sound
- Ingrian: trilissä — make a clinking sound
- Norman: trîntchi — make a clinking sound
- Portuguese: tinir — make a clinking sound
- Russian: бренча́ть (brenčátʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Russian: звуча́ть (zvučátʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Russian: звя́кать (zvjákatʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Russian: бря́цать (brjácatʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Russian: звене́ть (zvenétʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Russian: дребезжа́ть (drebezžátʹ) — make a clinking sound
- Spanish: entrechocar — make a clinking sound
- Swedish: klirra — make a clinking sound
- Swedish: klinga — make a clinking sound