slink

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See also: šlink

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /slɪŋk/
  • Audio (RP)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Verb[edit]

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.
    • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 2,[1]
      As we do turn our backs
      From our companion thrown into his grave,
      So his familiars to his buried fortunes
      Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
      Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self,
      A dedicated beggar to the air,
      With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty,
      Walks, like contempt, alone.
    • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9[2]
      Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.
    • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 239:
      Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎[3]:
      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, […] .
    • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67:
      I have arrived to catch the 0830 TfW service to Crewe, worked by a tatty and unrefurbished 175114. As if ashamed of its appearance, it slinks into Platform 2 (instead of Platform 1, where it was expected). No announcement had been made, and we leave without any fanfare.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To give birth to an animal prematurely.
    a cow that slinks her calf

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

slink (countable and uncountable, plural slinks)

  1. (countable) A furtive sneaking motion.
    • 1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat (page 30)
      His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.
  2. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
  3. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.
  4. (obsolete) A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
  5. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

slink (comparative more slink, superlative most slink)

  1. (Scotland) thin; lean

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

slink

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

Anagrams[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Verb[edit]

slink

  1. imperative of slinka.
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