Also 6 chynken, chincke, 6–7 chinke. [Belongs to CHINK sb.2, along with which it appears in the 16th c. Cf. also CHINE v. and CHINSE v.]
† 1. intr. To open in cracks or clefts, to crack.
1552. Huloet, Chynken or gape, as the ground dooth with dryeth.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 484. The boate chinketh.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 467. The earth aboue head chinketh, and all at once … setleth and falleth.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 24. Chapping grounds, chinking, or chauming with Cranies.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 332. To chink, as ground doth, rimas agere.
† 2. trans. To crack or chap. Obs.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 11. Kissing their wal apart where it was chinckt.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 551. This kind of painting ships is so fast and sure, that neither sun will resolue … ne yet wind and weather pierce and chinke it.
1611. Cotgr., Gercer.… To chinke, chap, chawne (as the North wind does) the face, hands, &c.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Divers Treat. (1662), 195 (L.). The surface … is chopped and chinked with drought, and burnt up with heat.
3. To fill (up) chinks, esp. (U.S.) those between the logs in a log-house. (Cf. CHINCH, CHINSE.)
1822. Scott, Nigel, vii. The walls, doors, and windows, are so chinked up.
1845. G. W. Kendall, Texan Santa Fé Exped., I. i. 25. Our log-house quarters, however, were closely ‘chinked and daubed.’
1881. W. H. Gilder, in Scribner’s Mag., 79/2. While the men cut the snow-blocks and build the house, the women chink the cracks.
