ppl. a. Also 5 lynket, 6 ylincked, 6–7 lincked. [f. LINK v.1 + -ED1.] Connected by or as by links; joined, coupled, associated. † Also, made or fashioned with links. † Linked line advb. phr., in a continued line.
a. 1450. Fysshynge w. Angle (1883), 8. Make þe yarde mete vn to the hole of the seyd stafe yn to þe halfe stare lynket lyngh.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, II. L ij. By and by were vices by that lincked contrarietie necessarily accompanied with them.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 46. She held a great gold chaine ylincked well.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 140. With many a winding bout Of lincked sweetnes long drawn out. Ibid. (1667), P. L., I. 328. His swift pursuers … with linked Thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.
179[?]. Burns, Bonie Peg. Wi’ linked hands, we took the sands Adown yon winding river.
1816. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 29. Notions, linked arguments [etc.] … influence only the comparatively few.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., III. iii. 136. The dark linked ivy tangling wild.
1825. Scott, Talism., i. His limbs … fitted to wear his linked hauberk, with as much ease as if the meshes had been formed of cobwebs.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxii. (1878), 180. What trouble … could enter into these linked lives?
b. Mil. Since 1872 used of two infantry battalions (or regiments) which are coupled together to form a regimental district (see also quot. 1872–6).
1872. Ld. E. Cecil, in Hansard, Parl. Debates, 3rd Ser. CCIX. 1343. The linked regiments seemed in some instances rather ill-assorted unions.
1872–6. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), 232. These regiments are termed linked, and in the case of one of the regiments going or being on foreign service requiring men to make up its numbers, soldiers are drafted from the regiment remaining at home.
1892. Daily News, 12 April, 6/1. The line battalion in England, which has a linked battalion abroad, is unfit in every way to go into the field.
