MEANING
1. Produce a short, light ringing sound when hard objects touch.
2. Prison, in informal speech.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- glasses clink
- coins clink
On the page
Coins clinked in the open drawer.
Word forms
- Base
- clink
- Past tense
- clinked
- Past participle
- clinked
- Present participle
- clinking
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- clink
- Present continuous
- am/is/are clinking
- Present perfect
- have/has clinked
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been clinking
- Past
- clinked
- Past continuous
- was/were clinking
- Past perfect
- had clinked
- Past perfect continuous
- had been clinking
- Future
- will clink
- Future continuous
- will be clinking
- Future perfect
- will have clinked
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been clinking
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: clink; clinks; clinked; clinked; clinking. Noun use is uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: clinks.
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