slink

present singular third person slinks · participle present slinking · participle past slunk · past slunk · participle past slinked · past slinked · participle past uncommon slank · past uncommon slank

1. intransitiveTo sneak about furtively.

   Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   As we do turn our backs From our companion thrown into his grave, So his familiars to his buried fortunes Slink all away, leave their false vows with him, Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self, A dedicated beggar to the air, With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone.

   c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

   The leaving us was just a feint; / Back here to London did he slink, / And now works on without a wink / Of sleep, and we are on the brink

   1842, Robert Browning, Waring

   Joseph Poorgrass, in the background, twitched, and his lips became dry with fear of some terrible consequences as he saw Bathsheba summarily speaking, and Henery slinking off to a corner.

   1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC

   Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none.

   1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Stillness”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), page 239

   How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […].

   1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

2. ambitransitiveTo give birth to an animal prematurely.

   a cow that slinks her calf

plural slinks

1. countableA furtive sneaking motion.

   His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.

   1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat, page 30

2. countableuncountableThe young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
3. countableuncountableThe meat of such a prematurely born animal.

   It is an ascertained fact that young or “slink” veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhœa, more especially when that disease is epidemic.

   1868, Charles Alexander Cameron, The Stock-Feeder's Manual

4. countableobsoleteuncountableA bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
5. ScotlandUKcountabledialectaluncountableA thievish fellow; a sneak.

comparative more slink · superlative most slink

1. ScotlandThin; lean

   Synonyms: slunken