tink

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From Middle English tinken, of imitative origin. Compare ting.

tink (third-person singular simple present tinks, present participle tinking, simple past and past participle tinked)

1. To emit a high-pitched sharp or metallic noise.

   Jimmy heard the bells tink.

   • Wycliff's Bible, 1 Corinthians xiii (quoted in Medieval English Verse and Prose, 1948, by Loomis & Willard)

     If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and I have not charity, I am made as brass sounding or a cymbal tinking.

• tinkle

• tingle

tink (plural tinks)

1. (dated) A sharp, quick sound; a tinkle.

knit spelled backwards.

tink (third-person singular simple present tinks, present participle tinking, simple past and past participle tinked)

1. (knitting, slang, transitive) To unknit.
   • Amy Lane, A Knitter in His Natural Habitat (page 48)

     Stanley knitted when he should have purled and swore, tinking the knitting back to fix the flaw.

   • 2006, Heather Dixon, Not Your Mama's Knitting (page 89)

     If the stitch you need to fix is on the last or previous row, a bit of unknitting, or “tinking” as it is known by some knitters, is all that is needed to get back to the point where you can mend your mistake.

Shortened from tinker.

tink (plural tinks)

1. (chiefly Britain and Ireland, offensive) A member of the travelling community. A gypsy.
   • 2000, David Brian Plummer, Merle: The Start of Dynasty, →ISBN, page 11:

     'Most have white eyes, which ain't natural in any beast, tame or wild, and they are considered unlucky - the tinks calls 'em moonpies, and most will avoid settling on farms where they are kept.

   • 2014, Alastair Macleod, The Traveller's Tale, →ISBN:

     Her family had a name that marked them out as tinks, only they weren't tinks anymore.

   • 2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 47:

     'Well, you should feel right at home,' Flannigan said. 'You love a bit of thieving, you and the rest of the fucken tinks you grew up with in the Emerald Toilet.'

• knit

From English think.

tink

1. think