Also 7 (in sense 1) clincard, -art, -ar. [17th c. ad. earlier Du. klinckaerd (Kilian), in mod.Du. and LG. klinker, f. klinken to sound, ring. The original suffix -ARD has been weakened to -er both in Du. and Eng.]
1. A very hard kind of brick of a pale color, made in Holland, and used for paving.
1641. Evelyn Diary (1872), I. 26. That goodly aqueduct [at Amsterdam] so curiously wharfed with Klincard brick [earlier edd. clincars (a kind of white sun-baked brick)], which likewise paves the streets.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., 33. White or yellow (twice burnt) Flanders Bricks, in Dutch called Clinkart. Ibid. (1663), Counsel, 58. Clinkarts are very fit for the Paving of Stables.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, Jrnl. (1884), 63. This sort of bricks they call clinkers, and are as hard as any flint.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 187. In Holland, the streets are everywhere paved with a hard kind of bricks, known under the name of clinkers.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., 526. Dutch clinkers and Flemish bricks vary little in quality.
2. a. A brick whose surface has become vitrified by exposure to intense heat in the kiln or clamp. b. A mass of bricks fused by excessive heat, and adhering together.
1659. T. Willsford, Archit., 2. Those [bricks] next the fire are best burnt, and such as have naturally much Niter, or Salt-peter in them, with the violence of heat will run, as if glaz’d over for perpetuity: these some call Clinckers.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Brick, The best and most lasting are those that lie next the Fire, have a Gloss upon them, and are call’d Clinkers.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., 526. Burrs and clinkers are such bricks as have been violently burnt, or masses of several bricks run together in a clamp or kiln.
1881. Mechanic, 526. Filled up with rough stones, brick bats, clinkers from the brick fields.
3. A hard mass formed by the fusion of the earthy impurities of coal, lime-stone, iron ore, or the like, in a furnace or forge; a mass of slag.
1769. Phil. Trans., LXI. 70. A kind of Clinker, extracted from the ashes of sea coal.
1778. Antiq., in Ann. Reg., 151/2. The cinders or clinkers produced in a lime-kiln.
1817. T. J. Pettigrew, Mem. J. C. Lettsom, II. 263. Like the clinkers or slag … left in the distiller’s and brewer’s furnaces.
1854. Chamb. Jrnl., I. 201. A kind of coal which does not produce clinkers—that is, large cinders.
1877. N. W. Lincolnsh. Gloss., Clinkers, iron slag used for mending highways.
4. A mass of hardened volcanic lava.
1850. Dana, Geol., iii. 162. Lava and scoria in immense masses, piled together in the utmost confusion. They are styled clinkers or clinker fields. Ibid. (1862), Man. Geol., 694. The hardened crust breaks up like ice on a pond, but makes black and rough cakes and blocks 100 to 10,000 cubic feet in size, which lie piled together over acres or square miles. Such masses are … called clinkers.
1880. Q. Rev., Jan., 227. The tents had been pitched among masses of clinkers.
5. A scale of oxide of iron formed in forging.
b. A red powder used to polish steel.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 220. The coarsest [red stuff] known as ‘Clinker,’ is used for giving a surface to steel after it is tempered.
6. Comb., as clinker-field, -hill, etc.; clinker-bar (see quot.).
1850. Weale, Techn. Dict., Clinker-bar, in steam-engines, the bar fixed across the top of the ash-pit for supporting the rods used for clearing the fire-bars.
1850. Dana, Geol., iii. 163, note. The pahoihoi regions of Hawaii are often more extensive than the associated clinker-fields.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Clinker-hills, high heaps of iron dross cinders.
