dink

See also: DINK

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪŋk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

Imitative. Originally US. Attested since the 1930s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (tennis) A soft drop shot.
   • 2018 February 12, Ava Wallace, “New mother Serena Williams returns to tennis, with a little rust and plenty to learn”, in Washington Post‎^[1]:

     But what I saw is she still has that sense of, ‘Okay, I need to hit a dink shot, I need to come with power now, I need to change up my serve not for a flat one, but a big kick.’

2. (pickleball) A soft drop shot played at or near the non-volley zone.
3. (soccer) A light chip; a chipped pass or shot
   • 2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The forward passed to Fernandes and, as Pau López advanced, the Portuguese fashioned a sand‑wedge dink over the goalkeeper.

Translations

sports

• Dutch: lobben (nl)

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinking, simple past and past participle dinked)

1. (tennis) To play a soft drop shot.
2. (pickleball) To play a soft drop shot at or near the non-volley zone.
3. (soccer) To chip lightly, to play a light chip shot.

   The forward dinked the ball over the goalkeeper to score his first goal of the season.

   • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC‎^[3]:

     But the visitors started the game in stunning fashion when Morten Gamst Pedersen dinked forward a clever looping pass and Kalinic beat the offside trap, surged into the box and beautifully placed the ball past goalkeeper Scott Carson.

Etymology 2

Origin unknown. Attested since the 1930s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (Australia, colloquial) A ride on the crossbar or handlebars of a bicycle.

   I gave him a dink on my bike.

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinking, simple past and past participle dinked)

1. (Australia, colloquial) To carry someone on a pushbike: behind, on the crossbar or on the handlebar.
   • 1947, John Lehmann, editor, The Penguin New Writing, number 30, page 103:

     I didn't like them at all ; only the lame one who used to let me dink him home on his bicycle.

Derived terms

• double-dink

Etymology 3

Origin unknown. Attested since the 1960s. Compare Chink, a derogatory term for a Chinese person.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (US, military slang, derogatory, dated) A North Vietnamese soldier.
   • 1989, Craig Roberts, Charles W. Sasser, The Walking Dead: A Marine's Story of Vietnam, page 197:

     Our job was to go out on night patrols and stay behind to zap any dinks we caught sneaking back to their holes at dawn.

Etymology 4

Initialism. Originally US. Attested since the 1980s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (US) Initialism of double income no kids..

Etymology 5

See dinkum.

Adjective

dink

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Honest, fair, true.
2. (Australia, New Zealand) Genuine, proper, fair dinkum.

Adverb

dink (not comparable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Honestly, truly.
   • 2006, Pip Wilson, Face in the Street, page 323:

     Are you The Banjo? Fair dink no bull? Oh, sorry, lady, I mean ... dinki-di?

Noun

dink (uncountable)

1. (Australia, Northern England) Hard work, especially one's share of a task.
2. (historical, dated) A soldier from Australia or New Zealand, a member of the ANZAC forces during the First World War.

Etymology 6

Origin unknown. Attested since the late nineteenth century.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (Canada, US, colloquial, slang) The penis.
   • 2004, Brian Francis, Fruit: A Novel about a Boy and his Nipples, page 2:

     The hair on my legs is softer than the hair around my dink, but it still grosses me out.

2. (Canada, US, colloquial, slang) A foolish or contemptible person. [from 1960s]
   • 1997, Chris Gudgeon, You’re Not as Good as You Think, page 13:

     […] he was a dink, and all the money, fame, and power in the world wouldn't change that one simple fact.

Etymology 7

Origin unknown. Attested in English and in Scots since the sixteenth century.

Adjective

dink (not comparable)

1. (archaic or dialectal) Finely dressed, elegant; neat.
   • 1821, Walter Scott, Kenilworth, page 249:

     All these floated along with the immense tide of population, whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where the mechanic in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his city mistress […]

Etymology 8

See dinq.

Adjective

dink (not comparable)

1. (US, military) Alternative spelling of dinq

See also

• rinky-dink (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• -kind, kind

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch dinken, a regional variant of denken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dəŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

dink (present dink, present participle denkende, past dag or dog, past participle gedag or gedog or gedink)

1. to think
   • 1939, Jaarboek, page 44:

     Ons het gedag dat die behoefte om te pleit om 'n dergelike samewerikng […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1951, Suid-Afrikaanse Hofverslae, volume 3, page 79:

     […] ek het gedag dat met my man se dood dit sal nou tot niet geraak het.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1993, A Grammar of Afrikaans, Bruce Donaldson, page 223:

     Hy het gedag/gedog/gedink ek sou eers môre kom.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• The regular past form het gedink can be used in all senses.
• The irregular past forms dag, dog; het gedag, het gedog can only be used in the sense of “to believe, to reckon (that)”, but not in the sense of “to think about, to ponder”.

Derived terms

• bedink
• nadink

Anagrams

• kind

Scots

Etymology 1

Origin unknown. Attested in Old Scots circa 1500.

Adjective

dink (comparative mair dink, superlative maist dink)

1. neat and tidy

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinkin, simple past dinkt, past participle dinkt)

1. to deck
2. to dress neatly

Etymology 2

Probably a variant of English dint, a dent or mark left by a blow.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. a bruise

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinkin, simple past dinkt, past participle dinkt)

1. to dent, to bruise

References

• “dink” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.