Library / English Dictionary

CHINK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A short light metallic sound

Synonyms:

chink; click; clink

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("chink" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

chink (make or emit a high sound)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A narrow opening as e.g. between planks in a wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("chink" is a kind of...):

cleft; crack; crevice; fissure; scissure (a long narrow opening)

Derivation:

chink (make cracks or chinks in)

chink (fill the chinks of, as with caulking)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Chinese descent

Synonyms:

Chinaman; chink

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("chink" is a kind of...):

Chinese (a native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China)

Domain usage:

depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)

ethnic slur (a slur on someone's race or language)

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make cracks or chinks in

Example:

The heat checked the paint

Synonyms:

check; chink

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "chink" is one way to...):

crack (cause to become cracked)

Verb group:

break; check; crack (become fractured; break or crack on the surface only)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

chink (a narrow opening as e.g. between planks in a wall)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fill the chinks of, as with caulking

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "chink" is one way to...):

plug; secure; stop up (fill or close tightly with or as if with a plug)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

chink (a narrow opening as e.g. between planks in a wall)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make or emit a high sound

Example:

tinkling bells

Synonyms:

chink; clink; tink; tinkle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "chink" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

chink (a short light metallic sound)

Credits

 Context examples: 

So putting my hand in through the open window, I drew the curtain over it, leaving only an opening through which I could take observations; then I closed the casement, all but a chink just wide enough to furnish an outlet to lovers' whispered vows: then I stole back to my chair; and as I resumed it the pair came in.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master’s house, and then corrected in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with Yahoos’ tallow, till I found it staunch, and able to bear me and my freight; and, when it was as complete as I could possibly make it, I had it drawn on a carriage very gently by Yahoos to the sea-side, under the conduct of the sorrel nag and another servant.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Evidently, as they had dragged the stone up they had thrust the chunks of wood into the chink, until at last, when the opening was large enough to crawl through, they would hold it open by a billet placed lengthwise, which might very well become indented at the lower end, since the whole weight of the stone would press it down on to the edge of this other slab.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of the stairs, a drift of darts came whistling from every chink in the cliff above them.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Frenchman, whirling up his sword, showed for an instant a chink betwixt his shoulder piece and the rerebrace which guarded his upper arm.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy step approaching behind the great door, and saw through the chinks the gleam of a coming light.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I ate my breakfast with pleasure and was about to remove a plank to procure myself a little water when I heard a step, and looking through a small chink, I beheld a young creature, with a pail on her head, passing before my hovel.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I heard it chink.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The road topped a low hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to keep the flames under.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)