[f. TINKLE v.1 + -ING2.] That tinkles; making a short light ringing sound, or a succession of such; jingling.
c. 1440. [see TINKLE v.1 2].
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. I were even as soundynge brasse, and as a tynklynge Cymball.
1563. Winȝet, Four Scoir Thre Quest., vii. Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 75. Lyke soundand metell, or ane tincland cimbal.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. VI. iii. 373. Bees … when they heare any tinkling [ed. 1651 tingling] sound, will tarry behind.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess., Complaint, vii. The tinckling strings of thy loose minstrelsie.
1717. Pope, Eloisa, 158. The grots that echo to the tinkling rills.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xiii. A long train of mules—a jolly tinkling team.
1877. Mar. M. Grant, Sun-maid, i. There came the tinkling musical echo of a bell.
b. fig. of speech (or a speaker), or verse.
1626. B. Jonson, Fort. Isles, Wks. (Rtldg.), 650/1. In Rhime! fine tinckling Rhimel and flowand Verse!
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., Pref., M.’s Wks. 1851, VII. 10. Them, I say, together with their tinkling Advocate,… we shall e’en let whine on, till they cry their eyes out.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. v. (1869), 120. Keep to your sounding generalities, your tinkling phrases.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. i. 24. Beware, a tinkling fool to be!
c. Tinkling grackle, also simply tinkling: a bird, a species of grackle (Quiscalus crassirostris) found in Jamaica; so called from its note.
1847. Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 217. Tinkling Grakle. Ibid., 219. Like the Ani, the Tinkling feeds on the parasites of caille.
1890. Blackw. Mag., June, 787. The tinkling may be seen feeding greedily in the pastures.
1896. Newton, Dict. Birds, Tinkling or Tin-tin, the name in Jamaica for one of the American Grackles, Quiscalus crassirostris.
Hence Tinklingly adv., in a tinkling way.
1837. Dublin Univ. Mag., trans. Werner’s Twenty-Fourth of February, X. July, 44.
| The Glaciers, as if conscious of each pang | |
| I suffered, cried—‘We melt—Come home! Come home!’ | |
| The little Alpine bells tinklingly sang— | |
| ‘Rest for the wanderer and a happy home!’ |
c. 1850. Caroline M. Sawyer, Lake Mahopac, 21.
| While ever round the dipping oar | |
| White curls the feathery spray, | |
| Or from its bright suspended point | |
| Drips tinklingly away. |
1866. North Wales Chron., 3 March, 4/6. The ‘bones’ was in great force and the ‘triangle’ chimed in most tinklingly.
1894. Crockett, Mad Sir Uchtred, 25. As she spoke she laughed tinklingly.
Tinkling ppl. a.2: see TINKLE v.2
