slink

See also: šlink

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /slɪŋk/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology

From Old English slincan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (compare Dutch slinken (“to shrink, shrivel”), Swedish slinka (“to glide”)).

Verb

slink (third-person singular simple present slinks, present participle slinking, simple past and past participle slunk or slinked or slank)

1. (intransitive) To sneak about furtively.
   • Milton

     Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.

   • Landor

     There were some few who slank obliquely from them as they passed.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 3/1/1, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days^[1]:

     How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […] .

2. (transitive) To give birth to an animal prematurely.

   a cow that slinks her calf

Translations

sneak about furtively

• Dutch: sluipen (nl)
• Finnish: hiipiä (fi)
• Portuguese: espreitar (pt)

• Russian: красться (ru) impf (krástʹsja), подкрадываться impf (podkrádyvatʹsja), шнырять (ru) impf (šnyrjátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: šunjati se, krasti se

Noun

slink (plural slinks)

1. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
2. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.

Translations

the young of an animal when born prematurely

• Russian: недоносок (ru) m (nedonósok)

Adjective

slink (comparative more slink, superlative most slink)

1. (Scotland) thin; lean

Anagrams

• kilns, links

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slɪŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

slink

1. first-person singular present indicative of slinken
2. imperative of slinken

Anagrams

• links

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Swedish

Verb

slink

1. imperative of slinka.