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chink

 [chingk]   Example Sentences Origin

chink

1   [chingk]
noun
1.
a crack, cleft, or fissure: a chink in a wall.
2.
a narrow opening: a chink between two buildings.
verb (used with object)
3.
to fill up chinks in.

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Chink is one of our favorite verbs.
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to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.
to flee; abscond:
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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English; perhaps chine1 + -k suffix (see -ock)

Synonyms
1. breach, rent, cut.

Example Sentences
  • Light, portable and easy to lay, sticky bombs are tucked quickly under the bumper of a car or into a chink in a blast wall.
  • But nor have they found a chink in the armour of relativity that they could use to prise the whole thing open.
  • But there is one organism that seems to have found the chink in the prion's formidable armor: the lowly lichen.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

chink

2   [chingk]
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
1.
to make, or cause to make, a short, sharp, ringing sound, as of coins or glasses striking together.
noun
2.
a chinking sound: the chink of ice in a glass.
3.
Slang. coin or ready cash.
Origin:
1565–75; imitative

Chink

   [chingk]
noun (sometimes lowercase) Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
a Chinese.
Origin:
1900–05; earlier Chinkie apparently alteration of China, Chinese by association with chink1 (from the stereotypical Western image of Chinese as narrow-eyed); see -ie
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To chink
Collins
World English Dictionary
chink1 (tʃɪŋk)
 
—n
1.  a small narrow opening, such as a fissure or crack
2.  chink in one's armour a small but fatal weakness
 
—vb
3.  chiefly (US), (Canadian) (tr) to fill up or make cracks in
 
[C16: perhaps variant of earlier chine, from Old English cine crack; related to Middle Dutch kene, Danish kin]
 
'chinky1
 
—adj

chink2 (tʃɪŋk)
 
—vb
1.  to make or cause to make a light ringing sound, as by the striking of glasses or coins
 
—n
2.  such a sound
 
[C16: of imitative origin]

Chink or taboo Chinky (tʃɪŋk, ˈtʃɪŋkɪ)
 
—n, —adj , pl Chinks, Chinkies
an old-fashioned and highly derogatory term for Chinese
 
[C20: probably from Chinese, influenced by chink1 (referring to the characteristic shape of the Chinese eye)]
 
Chinky or taboo Chinky
 
—n, —adj
 
[C20: probably from Chinese, influenced by chink1 (referring to the characteristic shape of the Chinese eye)]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

chink
"slit," 1530s, from M.E. chine (with parasitic -k) from O.E. cinu "fissure," related to cinan "to crack, split, gape," from PIE base *gei-, *gi- "to germinate, bloom," connection being in the notion of bursting open.
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chink
"a Chinaman," 1901, derogatory, perhaps derived somehow from China, or else from chink (1) with ref. to eye shape.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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