[Corresponds to mod.Du. and EFris. kinken; a word imitating the sound expressed. See CHINK sb.3, and note below.]
1. intr. To emit a short, sharp, ringing sound, as coins or glasses do in striking each other.
1589–1611. [see CHINKING vbl. sb.2]
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Quip, iii. Then Money came … chinking still.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, I. 50. The Arrows chink as often as he jogs.
1682. N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, IV. 31. ’Tis time To Rise to Matins! Thus the Bells did Chink!
1798. Southey, Ballads, Surgeon’s Warning, Poems VI. 190. He made the guineas chink.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 83. When thrown into a tumbler, they chinked like lumps of ice.
b. said of a purse, pocket, etc., containing coins.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Wit at Sev. Weapons, IV. i. Enter Ruinous with a purse. Ru. It chinks; make haste!
1817. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXII. 141. Our pockets chink with the sound of something real.
2. trans. To cause (things) to make this sound by striking them together; esp. coins.
1728. Pope, Dunc., II. 189. He chinks his purse, and takes his seat of state.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Milk-maid, Poet. Wks. 1774, II. 52.
| Oft in her hand she chink’d the pence, | |
| The profits which arose from thence. |
1884. Miss Braddon, Ishmael, I. xii. 264. Chinking a glass against a bottle as a summons to the waiter.
[Note. The Harl. MSS. 221 (c. 1440) of Promp. Parv. has the entry ‘Chymyn’ or chenken’ wythe bellys tintillo,’ which, if genuine, carries back the evidence for this word a century earlier. Unfortunately, the reading is not supported by the other MSS., some of which, like the King’s Coll. and Winchester, have not the entry, while MS. Addit. 22, 586, like Pynson’s and the other printed edd., has ‘chymyn or clynke bellys, tintillo.’ This and the treatment of Clynkyn farther on make it possible that chenken is a scribal error for clynken.]
