clink

plural clinks

1. onomatopoeicThe sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.

   You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.

   1 more example

   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.

2. Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.

present singular third person clinks · participle present clinking · participle past clinked · past clinked

1. ambitransitiveTo 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.

   The hammers clinked on the stone all night.

   4 more examples

   The broken sheds look'd sad and strange, / Unlifted was the clinking latch, / Weeded and worn the ancient thatch / upon the lonely moated grange.

   1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, stanza I, page 10

   Never you mind if I / Don't tell strangers passing by / If I don't brag / If I don't brag or boast / Clink my glass and say a toast / About my love for you / How it runs so deep and true

   1970, Four Tops, “Still Water (Love)”, in Still Waters Run Deep

   Driftwood chimes made by Deirdre clinked their music in the breeze, and neatly tended beds—kept so by me—brimmed with flowers and herbs in the surrounding garden.

   2021, Xan van Rooyen, By the Blood of Rowans, →ISBN

   On the other side: the rich, beautiful tapestry of WASP culture that constituted Levis's life—friends playing horseshoes at backyard cocktail parties, where girls swanned in chaise longues, clinking their gin and tonics.

   2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN

2. datedhumorousTo rhyme.

plural clinks · alternative klink

1. datedslangA prison.

   If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.

present singular third person clinks · participle present clinking · participle past clinked · past clinked

1. ScotlandtransitiveTo clinch; to rivet.

plural Clinks

1. A surname.