Meanings
plural tinklings
- JamaicaThe Greater Antillean Grackle, Quiscalus niger.
- The action of the verb to tinkle
- not comparableThat tinkles.
A tinkling piano in the next apartment, / Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant, / A fairground's painted swings... / These foolish things remind me of you.
1936, Eric Maschwitz, “These Foolish Things”1 more example
American Christians, you may master the intricacies of the English language and you may possess the eloquence of articulate speech; but even though you speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, you are like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Paul's Letter to American Christians”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 163 - not comparableobsoleteThat works as a tinker
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of tinkle
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivelike the short high ringing sound of a small bell
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Esperanto tintado, tintanta
- tintadoa tinkling sound
- tintantathat tinkles
- tintetantathat tinkles
French tintement
- tintementa tinkling sound
Cite this entry
tinkling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tinkling
“tinkling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tinkling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tinkling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tinkling.
Source: tinkling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.