different between clang vs chink

English

Etymology

1570, of imitative origin; Compare also Saterland Frisian Kloang, West Frisian klank, Dutch klank, German Klang (from klingen), Danish and Swedish klang, Latin clangere.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kl?ng, IPA^(key): /klæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

clang (plural clangs)

1. A loud, ringing sound, like that made by free-hanging metal objects striking each other.
2. Quality of tone.
3. The cry of some birds, including the crane and the goose.
4. (psychology, psychiatry) A word or phrase linked only by sound and not by meaning, characteristic of some mental disorders.
   • 1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings

     For much of this day, Mrs Y. wrote in her diary, covering page after page in a rapid scrawl full of paligraphic repetitions, puns, clangs, and violent, perseverative crossings-out […]

5. (music) Alternative form of klang

Translations

Verb

clang (third-person singular simple present clangs, present participle clanging, simple past and past participle clanged)

1. (transitive) To strike (objects) together so as to produce a clang.
2. (intransitive) To give out a clang; to resound.

Derived terms

• clanger
• clanging
• clangy

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /t???k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

Of uncertain origin; but apparently an extension (with formative -k) of Middle English chine, from Old English ?ine (“a crack, chine, chink”), equivalent to chine +? -k.

Alternatively, the -k may represent an earlier unrecorded diminutive, perhaps from Middle English *chinek, making it equivalent to chine +? -ock (diminutive ending).

Noun

chink (plural chinks)

1. A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet I did not give way, but settled to wait for the dawn, which must, I knew, be now at hand; for then I thought enough light would come through the chinks of the tomb above to show me how to set to work.

   • 1842 Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome

     Through one cloudless chink, in a black, stormy sky, / Shines out the dewy morning star.

2. A chip or dent in something metallic.

3. (figuratively) A vulnerability or flaw in a protection system or in any otherwise formidable system.

Translations

Verb

chink (third-person singular simple present chinks, present participle chinking, simple past and past participle chinked)

1. (transitive) To fill an opening such as the space between logs in a log house with chinking; to caulk.

2. (intransitive) To crack; to open.
3. (transitive) To cause to open in cracks or fissures.

Translations

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Noun

chink (plural chinks)

1. A slight sound as of metal objects touching each other; a clink.
2. (colloquial, now rare) Ready money, especially in the form of coins.
   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, pp. 47-8:

     I thought that if all the hills about there were pure chink, and all belonged to me, I would give them if I could just talk to her when I wanted to […]

   • 1855, Henry Augustus Wise, Tales for the Marines (page 121)

     At the same time, mind, I must have a bit of a frolic occasionally, for that's all the pleasure I has, when I gets a little chink in my becket; and ye know, too, that I don t care much for that stuff, for a dollar goes with me as fur as a gold ounce does with you, when ye put on your grand airs, and shower it about like a nabob.

Translations

Verb

chink (third-person singular simple present chinks, present participle chinking, simple past and past participle chinked)

1. (intransitive) To make a slight sound like that of metal objects touching.

2. (transitive) To cause to make a sharp metallic sound, as coins, small pieces of metal, etc., by bringing them into collision with each other.

   • He chinks his purse

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

chink (plural chinks)

1. Alternative form of kink (“gasp for breath”)

Verb

chink (third-person singular simple present chinks, present participle chinking, simple past and past participle chinked)

1. Alternative form of kink (“gasp for breath”)

Etymology 4

Noun

chink (plural chinks)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Chink

Anagrams

• Hinck, Kinch