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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

slink.

To sneak about furtively.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/slɪŋk/UK

  1. To sneak about furtively.

    intransitive

  2. To give birth to an animal prematurely.

    ambitransitive
    a cow that slinks her calf
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/slɪŋk/UK

  1. A furtive sneaking motion.

    countable

  2. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.

    countable · uncountable

  3. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.

    countable · uncountable

  4. A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  5. A thievish fellow; a sneak.

    Scotland · UK · countable · dialectal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

adj/slɪŋk/UK

  1. Thin; lean

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

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.

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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.