CHINK

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does chink mean? 

• CHINK (noun)
  The noun CHINK has 3 senses:

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

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

3. a short light metallic sound

  Familiarity information: CHINK used as a noun is uncommon.

• CHINK (verb)
  The verb CHINK has 3 senses:

1. make or emit a high sound

2. fill the chinks of, as with caulking

3. make cracks or chinks in

  Familiarity information: CHINK used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHINK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Chinaman; chink

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))

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:

A short light metallic sound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

chink; click; clink

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

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

chink (make or emit a high sound)

• CHINK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they chink    ... he / she / it chinks   
Past simple: chinked   
Past participle: chinked   
-ing form: chinking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make or emit a high sound

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

chink; clink; tink; tinkle

Context example:

tinkling bells

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)

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 cracks or chinks in

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

check; chink

Context example:

The heat checked the paint

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)

 Context examples 

In one of these was a small and almost imperceptible chink through which the eye could just penetrate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Hans was restless, and Edith felt uncomfortable. Dennin lay on his back, staring straight up at the moss- chinked roof.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, whistled through every chink of the rude building and sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

As Alleyne walked up to it he perceived that it was rudely fashioned out of beams of wood, with twinkling lights all over where the glow from within shone through the chinks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In one hand he held a guttering candle and in the other a brown bag, which chinked as he moved.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between the stones.

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

This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

A sheer wall of rock had appeared before us, with no chink through which a mouse could have slipped.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I think it was over the kitchen, because a warm greasy smell appeared to come up through the chinks in the floor, and there was a flabby perspiration on the walls.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)