different between clack vs clink

English

Etymology

From Middle English clacken, clakken, claken, from Old English *clacian (“to slap, clap, clack”), from Proto-Germanic *klak?n? (“to clap, chirp”). Cognate with Scots clake, claik (“to utter cries", also "to bedaub, sully with a sticky substance”), Dutch klakken (“to clack, crack”), Low German klakken (“to slap on, daub”), Norwegian klakke (“to clack, strike, knock”), Icelandic klaka (“to twitter, chatter, wrangle, dispute”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klæk/

Noun

clack (plural clacks)

1. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.
2. Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.
3. Chatter; prattle.

   • whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack

4. (colloquial) The tongue.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clack (third-person singular simple present clacks, present participle clacking, simple past and past participle clacked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
2. (transitive) To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
3. To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)
4. (Britain) To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.
5. Dated form of cluck.
   • 1934, Gladys Bagg Taber, Late Climbs the Sun (page 30)

     Only the chickens clacked at the Saturday quiet and fat mouse-minded cats licked whiskers on the empty steps.

   • 1964, Frances Margaret Cheadle McGuire, Gardens of Italy (page 57)

     We drive on between meadows of mown grass, through a pergola of vines, and so to an orchard of peaches, apples, and pears and a hen colony housed in neat modern cottages, the chickens clacking and scratching away […]

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English clinken, from Old English *clincan (compare clynnan, clynian (“to sound; resound”)), from Proto-Germanic *klingan? (“to sound”). Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen. Doublet of call.

Perhaps of onomatopoeic origin, as metal against metal.

Noun

clink (plural clinks)

1. (onomatopoeia) The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.

   You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.

   • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V

     When Frere had come down, an hour before, the prisoners were all snugly between their blankets. They were not so now; though, at the first clink of the bolts, they would be back again in their old positions, to all appearances sound asleep.

Translations

Verb

clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a clinking sound; to make a sound of metal on metal or glass on glass; to strike materials such as metal or glass against one another.

   The hammers clinked on the stone all night.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Mariana

     The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
     Unlifted was the clinking latch

2. (humorous, dated) To rhyme.

Translations

Etymology 2

From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.

Noun

clink (plural clinks)

1. (slang) A prison.

   If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.

2. Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:jail

Etymology 3

Verb

clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)

1. (transitive, Scotland) To clinch; to rivet.

Anagrams

• Linck