[An echoic word; used also as a verb, CHINK v.3]
1. An imitation of the short, sharp sound produced by pieces of metal or glass striking one another; hence a name for this sound.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 276 b. As soone as they coyne shall cry chink in your boxes.
1601. Yarington, Two Lament. Trag., V. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. 96. And chinck of golde is such a pleasing crie.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. i. § 18. The chink of their money.
1782. Cowper, Truth, 140. At chink of bell.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, X. iii. 7. The chink of his pence.
1872. J. G. Holland, Marb. Proph., 10. Now I hear The sharp, metallic chink of grounded arms Upon the marble.
2. Any sound of the same kind.
a. 1764. Lloyd, To Colman. Ere Milton soar’d in thought sublime, Ere Pope refin’d the chink of rhyme.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 126–7. Half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 299. The ‘fink, chink’ of the finches sounded almost as merrily as before.
† 3. pl. Pieces of ready money, coins. Obs.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 134. To buie it the cheaper, haue chinkes in thy purse.
1577. Holinshed, Descr. Irel., iii. Such as had not redy chinckes, and theruppon forced to run on ye score.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. v. 119. He that can lay hold of her, Shall haue the chincks.
1611. Cotgr., Quinquaille, chinkes, coyne.
4. A humorous colloquial term for money in the form of coin; ready cash.
Exceedingly common in the dramatists and in songs of the 17th c.; now rather slangy or vulgar.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 101. Feed them and cram them til purse doe lack chinke.
1598. Florio, Dindi … a childish word for money, as we say chinke.
1652. C. Stapylton, Herodian, XV. 129. They shew withall their purses full of Chink.
1653. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks. (1876), No. 20. 8. He pay’d the chinque, and freely gave me drink.
a. 1745. Swift, Martial, I. lxxxvi. 67. Nay, I’m so happy, most men think, To live so near a man of chink.
a. 1845. Hood, Black Job, iv. A Treasurer, of course, to keep the chink.
5. [from the sound of their note.] a. The Chaffinch; also called chink-chink, chink-chaffey, chinky-chank. dial. b. The Reed Bunting. Sc.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 104.
1864. Atkinson, Provinc. Names Birds, Chink, chinky, chaffinch.
1875. Buckland, Note, in White’s Selborne, 356. The chiff-chaff is also called the ‘chinky-chank.’
