clink

¹

[ klingk ]

verb (used with or without object)

1. to make or cause to make a light, sharp, ringing sound:

   The coins clinked together. He clinked the fork against a glass.

noun

1. a clinking sound.
2. Metallurgy. a small crack in a steel ingot resulting from uneven expanding or contracting.
3. a pointed steel bar for breaking up road surfaces.
4. Archaic. a rhyme; jingle.

clink

²

[ klingk ]

noun

, Slang.

1. a prison; jail; lockup.

clink

¹

/ klɪŋk /

noun

1. a slang word for prison

clink

²

/ klɪŋk /

verb

1. to make or cause to make a light and sharply ringing sound

noun

1. a light and sharply ringing sound
2. a pointed steel tool used for breaking up the surface of a road before it is repaired

Word History and Origins

Origin of clink¹

1275–1325; Middle English clinken, perhaps < Middle Dutch clinken to sound, ring, resound

Origin of clink²

1505–15; after Clink, name of prison in Southwark, London, perhaps < Dutch klink door-latch

Word History and Origins

Origin of clink¹

C16: after Clink, name of a prison in Southwark, London

Origin of clink²

C14: perhaps from Middle Dutch klinken; related to Old Low German chlanch, German Klang sound

Example Sentences

Yvonne Thomas, chief executive of The Clink, a charity that has a long history of training offenders for work, warned it was crucial that people leaving prison got a safe and secure start to minimise the risk of them re-offending.

From BBC

And stand by for the sentencing: On July 11, Biden the deep state puppetmaster surely will pull Judge Juan M. Merchan’s strings again, to ensure that he throws Trump in the clink.

From Los Angeles Times

Moira: Though McMenamins bought and renovated the hotel in the 1990s, surely adding much of the décor, everything looks happily like it’s been here forever, from the extra-vintage, too-pretty-to-use cash register at the bar to the well-worn benches of our booth, where many contented diners have sat and listened to the clink of pool cues in the next room.

From Seattle Times

When he hits a pothole on our street, the bottles clink against one another.

From Literature

“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela,” Trump said Saturday in a Truth Social post.

From Los Angeles Times