clink.
The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
Meaning & usage
The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.
Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
Where this word comes from
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.
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.
To rhyme.
Where this word comes from
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.
A prison.
If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.
Where this word comes from
From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.
To clinch; to rivet.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.