clink

Meanings

Noun

• The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
• A prison.
• Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.

Verb

• 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.
• To rhyme.
• To clinch; to rivet.

Origin

• From Middle English clinken, from Old English clincan (compare clynnan, clynian), from Proto-Germanic *klinganą ("to sound"). Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen. call.
• Perhaps of onomatopoeic origin, as metal against metal.
• From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.