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slink

verb
/slɪŋk/UK

Etymology

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”). Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

  1. derived from *sel-✻ — “to sneak; crawl”
  2. derived from *sleng-✻
  3. inherited from *slinkaną✻ — “to creep; crawl”
  4. inherited from slincan — “to creep; crawl”
  5. inherited from slynken

Definitions

  1. To sneak about furtively.

    • Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.
    • The leaving us was just a feint; / Back here to London did he slink, / And now works on without a wink / Of sleep, and we are on the brink

  2. To give birth to an animal prematurely.

    • a cow that slinks her calf

  3. A furtive sneaking motion.

    • His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.

    2. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.

      • It is an ascertained fact that young or “slink” veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhœa, more especially when that disease is epidemic.

    3. A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.

    4. A thievish fellow

      A thievish fellow; a sneak.

    5. Thin

      Thin; lean

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for slink. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA