See quot. 1705. Chink is used by Fletcher ab. 1625 (N.E.D.). The word is now used to designate a wheat destroying insect of the genus Blissus. (Later quotations.)
1705. Chinches are a sort of flat Bug, which lurks in the Beadsteads and Bedding, and disturbs People’s Rest a-nights.—Beverley, ‘Virginia,’ iv. 66.
1888. The grasshopper is unknown [in Arkansas]; likewise the chinch-bug.—‘Little Rock Democrat,’ n.d. (Farmer).
1910. The scales for weighing diamonds are so delicate that an eyelash will turn the balances, but that is nothing to the scales of American prices, which are so delicate that the yell of a crop killer who has discovered a chintz bug down in Texas will swing the balances in Chicago.—Omaha Bee (March).
