clink
/klɪŋk/
clink noun: the sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
Noun (1)
clink (plural clinks)
- The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
- You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.
- 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.1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V
- Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
Verb (1)
clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)
- 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.
- 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.1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, stanza I, page 10
- To rhyme.
Noun (2)
clink (plural clinks)
- A prison.
- If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.
Verb (2)
clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)
Proper noun capitalized: Clink
Clink (plural Clinks)
- A surname.
clink meaning in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali
clink in Hindi
- to clink, jingle, clash, clatter
- खनकना khanaknā
clink in Urdu
- to clink, jingle, clash, clatter
- کھنکنا khanaknā
clink in Bengali
- কাঁচ, ধাতুর ঝনঝন শব্দ
Examples of clink in a sentence
- 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 true1970, Four Tops, “Still Water (Love)”, in Still Waters Run Deep:
- 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.2021, Xan van Rooyen, By the Blood of Rowans, →ISBN:
Forms of clink
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | clinks |
| alternative form | klink |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | clinks |
| present participle | clinking |
| past participle | clinked |
| past | clinked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Clinks |
Origin of clink
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.
From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.
Words formed from clink
Words that rhyme with clink
Questions about clink
- What does clink mean?
- Clink means the sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
- What is clink in Hindi?
- Clink in Hindi is खनकना (khanaknā). See Clink meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use clink in a sentence?
- 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
- What part of speech is clink?
- Clink can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce clink?
- Clink is pronounced /klɪŋk/.
- What is the plural of clink?
- The plural of clink is clinks.
Words near clink in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clink (page history and authors); Clink (page history and authors); खनकना (Hindi) (page history and authors); کھنکنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); clink (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-clink.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.