Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A variant of slink.
  • noun Preterit and past participle of slink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imp. & p. p. of slink.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An animal, especially a calf, born prematurely or abortively.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of slink.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an allusive sense of slink, meaning ‘bring forth young prematurely’.

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Examples

  • Then amidst a loud hooting, Hall took his weapons and without a word slunk into the boat of the Raven that lay astern, and rowed ashore; nor did Eric see his face for many months.

    Eric Brighteyes Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • He had heard of his extraordinary powers of curing almost every description of malady peculiar to the human frame, and without another word slunk out of the room.

    The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector The Works of William Carleton, Volume One William Carleton 1831

  • Hahn-Bin who uses only his first name slunk across the stage with his instrument, propped himself atop a piano and whipped his bow toward the crowd, more ringmaster than concertmaster.

    NYT > Home Page By ALEX HAWGOOD 2011

  • The past several years I have kind of slunk around and sulked and not really celebrated or feted my birthday.

    They Say Its Your Birthday Zombie Mom 2009

  • When we got just about up to the grove -- the police believed that the Klansmen were really out there, I guess -- so they kind of slunk back.

    History and Memory: 2000 Lillian Smith Book Awards Staff 2001

  • I kind of slunk along, sticking to the walls, hands in my pockets.

    A Place so Foreign Cory Doctorow

  • Jurgis 'task to slide them into the trap, calves and all, and on the floor below they took out these "slunk" calves, and butchered them for meat, and used even the skins of them.

    The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1923

  • One curious thing he had noticed, the very first day, in his profession of shoveler of guts; which was the sharp trick of the floor bosses whenever there chanced to come a "slunk" calf.

    The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1923

  • So in a trice the carcass of the cow would be cleaned out, and entrails would have vanished; it was Jurgis 'task to slide them into the trap, calves and all, and on the floor below they took out these "slunk" calves, and butchered them for meat, and used even the skins of them.

    The Jungle 1906

  • One curious thing he had noticed, the very first day, in his profession of shoveler of guts; which was the sharp trick of the floor bosses whenever there chanced to come a "slunk" calf.

    The Jungle 1906

Comments

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  • Of a calf, born prematurely. Seen in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906).

    October 7, 2008