slink

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

slink

/slɪŋk/ UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋk

Where it comes from

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”).

Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

verb slinks · slinking · slunk · slinked

intransitive To sneak about furtively. As we do turn our backs From our companion thrown into his grave, So his familiars to his buried fortunes Slink all away, leave their false vows with him, Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self, A dedicated beggar to the air, With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone.
ambitransitive To give birth to an animal prematurely. a cow that slinks her calf

noun slinks

countable A furtive sneaking motion. His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.
countable, uncountable The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
countable, uncountable The meat of such a prematurely born animal. It is an ascertained fact that young or “slink” veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhœa, more especially when that disease is epidemic.
countable, obsolete, uncountable A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
Scotland, UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable A thievish fellow; a sneak.

adjective more slink · most slink

Scotland Thin; lean
Similar: slunken

Translations

Every language

verb sneak about furtively

Português	espreitar
Deutsch	schleichen
Italiano	sgattaiolare
Română	furișa, strecura, fofila
Русский	кра́сться krástʹsja, подкра́дываться podkrádyvatʹsja, шныря́ть šnyrjátʹ

noun the young of an animal when born prematurely

Deutsch	Frühgeburt
Русский	недоно́сок nedonósok

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"slink." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/slink. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

slink. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/slink

Chicago

"slink." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/slink.

BibTeX

@misc{slink_2026,
  title = {slink},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/slink},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}