1. The loose metal ball that serves as the clapper of a globular sleigh-bell.
1881. Sci. Amer., XLIV. 323. This sand core, with the jinglet inside, is placed in the mould of the outside, and the melted metal is poured in, which fills up the space between the core and the mould.
1884. in Chicago Advance, 7 Feb., 83. This little iron ball [in a sleigh bell] is called ‘the jinglet.’ When you shake the sleigh bell it jingles.
2. ‘Any small jingling appendage, esp. one shaped like a sleigh-bell’ (Funk, 1893).
