slink
/slɪŋk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.38 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To give birth to an animal prematurely.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent."
- "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"
- "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."
- "Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none."
- "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, […]."
Etymology
From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”). Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /slɪŋk/
Usage
Inflected Forms
slinks (present, singular)
slinking (participle, present)
slunk (participle, past)
slunk (past)
slinked (participle, past)
slinked (past)
slank (participle, past)
slank (past, uncommon)
slinks (plural)
more slink (comparative)
most slink (superlative)