Word.ws English Dictionary

kinker

kinker noun: a performer in a circus.

Noun

kinker (plural kinkers)

  1. (slang) A performer in a circus.
    • […] the high trapeze "kinkers" go through their "flying" act; but in a montage treatment of filming the children's trip to the circus, it could be used with striking effect as a comment on their imitation of the thrilling action.1933, Amateur Movie Makers, volume 8, page 150
    • "So, what's the vernacular then?" I say finally. ¶ "They're called kinkers," says Camel..."don't you go calling them 'kinkers' to their faces, neither." ¶ "What do I call them?" ¶ "Performers...There's them and there's us, and you're us," says Camel.2006, Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, pages 36–37

Forms of kinker

pluralkinkers

Questions about kinker

What does kinker mean?
Kinker means a performer in a circus.
What part of speech is kinker?
Kinker is a noun.
What is the plural of kinker?
The plural of kinker is kinkers.

Words near kinker in the dictionary

  1. kinked out
  2. kinkedness
  3. kinkeeper
  4. kinkeepers
  5. kinkeeping
  6. kinker
  7. kinkers
  8. kinkfic
  9. kinkhab
  10. kinkhabs
  11. kinkhost

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kinker (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-kinker.ogg.

Cite this entry: “kinker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kinker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.