clink

noun

1. 1

   The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.

   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.

2. 2

   Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.

verb

1. 1

   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.

   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.

2. 2

   datedTo rhyme.

noun

1. 1

   datedA prison.

   If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.

verb

1. 1

   To clinch; to rivet.

Forms

plural

clinks

past tense

clinked

past participle

clinked

present participle

clinking

third person singular

clinks