Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make light metallic sounds, as those of a small bell.
  • intransitive verb Informal To urinate.
  • intransitive verb To cause to tinkle.
  • intransitive verb To signal or call by tinkling.
  • noun A light, clear metallic sound or a sound suggestive of it.
  • noun An act or instance of tinkling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To tinker.
  • noun A succession of small tinking or clinking sounds; a soft jingling noise.
  • To make or give forth a succession of little clinking sounds; clink or tink repeatedly or continuously.
  • To tingle.
  • To cause to clink or tink; jingle; ring.
  • To affect by tinking sounds; lead or draw by ringing or jingling.
  • To cause to ring or resound.

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

  • intransitive verb To make, or give forth, small, quick, sharp sounds, as a piece of metal does when struck; to clink.
  • intransitive verb To hear, or resound with, a small, sharp sound.
  • transitive verb To cause to clonk, or make small, sharp, quick sounds.
  • noun A small, sharp, quick sound, as that made by striking metal.

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

  • verb intransitive To make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.
  • verb intransitive, informal, juvenile To urinate.
  • verb transitive To cause to tinkle.
  • verb transitive To indicate, signal, etc. by tinkling.
  • noun A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.
  • noun UK, informal A telephone call.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make or emit a high sound
  • noun a light clear metallic sound as of a small bell

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tinklen, frequentative of tinken, to emit a brief metallic sound, perhaps of imitative origin.]

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