[Echoic.] A representation of the abrupt sound made by striking resonant metal with something hard and light: cf. CHINK, CLINK; often reduplicated in imitation of the repetition of such a sound, also with such variations as tink-tank, tink-a-tink, etc. Hence as sb. a single sound of this kind; also fig. in reference to rhyme or verse (cf. jingle). † To cry tink, to make such a sound, to tinkle (obs.).
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., II. iii. How it [the poem] chimes, and cries tinke i’ the close, diuinely!
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xli. There issued forth a tinkling sound … Tink, tink, tink—clear as a silver bell.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Rory O’More, vii. Mars chiming in with his rude tink-a-ting … He had turned into cymbals the sword and the shield.
1890. J. H. Stirling, Gifford Lect., xii. 239. It was in the heroic ten-syllabled tink-a-tink, and read like Pope’s Homer.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Aug., 251. The metallic clang-clank, tink-tank of chisel and hammer and stone saw.
