kink

• IPA^(key): /kɪŋk/

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian ("to laugh"; attested by cincung (“a fit of laughter”)), from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

• chink

kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)

1. To laugh loudly.
2. To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.

kink (plural kinks)

1. (Scotland, dialectal) A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.

From Dutch kink (“a twist or curl in a rope”)[1], from Proto-Germanic *kenk-, *keng- (“to bend, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gengʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid, weave”). Compare Middle Low German kinke (“spiral screw, coil”), Old Norse kikna (“to bend backwards, sink at the knee”), Icelandic kengur (“a bend or bight; a metal crook”). Probably related to kick.

kink (countable and uncountable, plural kinks)

1. A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.

   We couldn't get enough water to put out the fire because of a kink in the hose.

2. A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.

   They had planned to open another shop downtown, but their plan had a few kinks.

3. An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
   • Frederic Swartwout Cozzens

     Never a Yankee was born or bred / Without that peculiar kink in his head / By which he could turn the smallest amount / Of whatever he had to the best account.

4. (slang, countable and uncountable) Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
   • 2013, Alison Tyler, H Is for Hardcore, page 13:

     To top it all off, Lynn is into kink. Last night she was really into kink. It's a good thing that today is my day off because I need the time to recuperate and think things over.

5. (mathematics) A positive 1-soliton solution to the Sine–Gordon equation

• (unusual sexuality): normophilia

• sun kink

kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)

1. (transitive) To form a kink or twist.
2. (intransitive) To be formed into a kink or twist.

• Knik

From Low German schenke.

kink (genitive kingi, partitive kinki)

1. gift
2. favour/favor

• jõulukink

Cognate to dialectal Finnish kenkku.

kink (genitive kingu, partitive kinku)

1. small mound, knoll

• häbemekink