clink
/klɪŋk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.62 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "The hammers clinked on the stone all night."
- "The broken sheds look'd sad and strange, / Unlifted was the clinking latch, / Weeded and worn the ancient thatch / upon the lonely moated grange."
- "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"
- "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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: clinken, *clincan, *klinganą