dink

See also: DINK

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪŋk/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

Imitative. Originally US. Attested since the 1930s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (tennis) A soft drop shot.
   • 2018 February 12, Ava Wallace, “New mother Serena Williams returns to tennis, with a little rust and plenty to learn”, in Washington Post‎^[1]:

     But what I saw is she still has that sense of, ‘Okay, I need to hit a dink shot, I need to come with power now, I need to change up my serve not for a flat one, but a big kick.’

2. (pickleball) A soft drop shot played at or near the non-volley zone.
3. (soccer) A light chip; a chipped pass or shot
   • 2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The forward passed to Fernandes and, as Pau López advanced, the Portuguese fashioned a sand‑wedge dink over the goalkeeper.

Translations

sports

• Dutch: lobben (nl)

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinking, simple past and past participle dinked)

1. (tennis) To play a soft drop shot.
2. pickleball To play a soft drop shot at or near the non-volley zone.
3. (cricket) To strike the ball gently.
4. (soccer) To chip lightly, to play a light chip shot.

   The forward dinked the ball over the goalkeeper to score his first goal of the season.

   • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC‎^[3]:

     But the visitors started the game in stunning fashion when Morten Gamst Pedersen dinked forward a clever looping pass and Kalinic beat the offside trap, surged into the box and beautifully placed the ball past goalkeeper Scott Carson.

   • 2024 January 7, Gary Rose, “Manchester City 5-0 Huddersfield Town”, in BBC Sport‎^[4]:

     A dinked pass intended for De Bruyne from the impressive Oscar Bobb then deflected off Jackson and looped into the net early in the second half before Foden smashed in his second.

5. (video games, slang, transitive) To land a non-lethal headshot on.

   Synonym: goosh

Derived terms

• dinker

 

Etymology 2

Origin unknown. Attested since the 1930s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (Australia, colloquial) A ride on the crossbar or handlebars of a bicycle.

   I gave him a dink on my bike.

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinking, simple past and past participle dinked)

1. (Australia, colloquial) To carry someone on a pushbike: behind, on the crossbar or on the handlebar.
   • 1947, John Lehmann, editor, The Penguin New Writing, number 30, page 103:

     I didn't like them at all ; only the lame one who used to let me dink him home on his bicycle.

Derived terms

• double-dink

Etymology 3

Origin unknown. Attested since the 1960s. Compare Chink, a derogatory term for a Chinese person.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (US, military slang, derogatory, dated) A North Vietnamese soldier.
   • 1989, Craig Roberts, Charles W. Sasser, The Walking Dead: A Marine's Story of Vietnam, page 197:

     Our job was to go out on night patrols and stay behind to zap any dinks we caught sneaking back to their holes at dawn.

Etymology 4

Acronym. Originally US. Attested since the 1980s.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (US) Acronym of double income no kids.

Etymology 5

See dinkum.

Adjective

dink

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Honest, fair, true.
2. (Australia, New Zealand) Genuine, proper, fair dinkum.

Adverb

dink (not comparable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Honestly, truly.
   • 2006, Pip Wilson, Face in the Street, page 323:

     Are you The Banjo? Fair dink no bull? Oh, sorry, lady, I mean ... dinki-di?

Noun

dink (uncountable)

1. (Australia, Northern England) Hard work, especially one's share of a task.
2. (historical, dated) A soldier from Australia or New Zealand, a member of the ANZAC forces during the First World War.

Etymology 6

Origin unknown. Attested since the late nineteenth century.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. (Canada, US, colloquial, slang) The penis.
   • 2004, Brian Francis, Fruit: A Novel about a Boy and his Nipples, page 2:

     The hair on my legs is softer than the hair around my dink, but it still grosses me out.

2. (Canada, US, colloquial, slang) A foolish or contemptible person. [from 1960s]
   • 1997, Chris Gudgeon, You’re Not as Good as You Think, page 13:

     […] he was a dink, and all the money, fame, and power in the world wouldn't change that one simple fact.

Etymology 7

Origin unknown. Attested in English and in Scots since the sixteenth century.

Adjective

dink (not comparable)

1. (archaic or dialectal) Finely dressed, elegant; neat.
   • 1821, Walter Scott, Kenilworth, page 249:

     All these floated along with the immense tide of population, whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where the mechanic in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his city mistress […]

Etymology 8

See dinq.

Adjective

dink (not comparable)

1. (US, military) Alternative spelling of dinq

See also

• rinky-dink (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• -kind, kind

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch dinken, a regional variant of denken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dəŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

dink (present dink, present participle denkende, past dag or dog, past participle gedag or gedog or gedink)

1. to think
   • 1939, Jaarboek, page 44:

     Ons het gedag dat die behoefte om te pleit om 'n dergelike samewerikng […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1951, Suid-Afrikaanse Hofverslae, volume 3, page 79:

     […] ek het gedag dat met my man se dood dit sal nou tot niet geraak het.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1993, A Grammar of Afrikaans, Bruce Donaldson, page 223:

     Hy het gedag/gedog/gedink ek sou eers môre kom.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• The regular past form het gedink can be used in all senses.
• The irregular past forms dag, dog; het gedag, het gedog can only be used in the sense of “to believe, to reckon (that)”, but not in the sense of “to think about, to ponder”.

Derived terms

• bedink
• nadink

Anagrams

• kind

Scots

Etymology 1

Origin unknown. Attested in Old Scots circa 1500.

Adjective

dink (comparative mair dink, superlative maist dink)

1. neat and tidy

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinkin, simple past dinkt, past participle dinkt)

1. to deck
2. to dress neatly

Etymology 2

Probably a variant of English dint, a dent or mark left by a blow.

Noun

dink (plural dinks)

1. a bruise

Verb

dink (third-person singular simple present dinks, present participle dinkin, simple past dinkt, past participle dinkt)

1. to dent, to bruise

References

• “dink”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.