Meanings
plural plinkers
- A person who shoots at makeshift targets.
Game wardens anywhere know about "plinkers" — those gun-toting folks, mostly urban, young, and male, who will shoot at anything that moves. In the deserts, urban centers are growing. Plinkers are legion.
1994, Diana Kappel-Smith, Desert Time: A Journey Through the American Southwest, page 981 more example
Plinkers, also called gallery shooters, don't need a formal shooting range for their sport. They shoot at things that respond. Many plinkers pick out a can or piece of charcoal to set on a spot with a safe background, then try to knock it down […]
1991, Missouri Conservationist, volume 52 - A firearm used to shoot at makeshift targets.
[…] the plinking gun should be more of a target arm than a defense or hunting gun, and ideally it should be one stage more sophisticated than the basic $35 to $45 revolver which many think of as a plinker.
1969, Field & Stream, volume 74, number 5, page 88 - One who makes a plinking sound.
The consumption rate of piano plinkers was terrific.
1958, The MATS Flyer, volume 5, page 10
Origin
Cite this entry
plinker. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plinker
“plinker.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plinker. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “plinker,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plinker.
Source: plinker on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.