inkling
Pronunciation
  • (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈɪŋklɪŋ/
Noun

inkling (plural inklings)

  1. Usually preceded by forms of to give#Verb|give: a slight hint#Noun|hint, implication, or suggestion give#Verb|given.
    Synonyms: intimation
  2. Often preceded by forms of to get or to have#Verb|have: an imprecise idea or slight knowledge of something; a suspicion.
    • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book ↗”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984 ↗; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338 ↗:
      If that a Pearl may in a Toads-head dwell, / And may be found too in an Oiſter-ſhell; / If things that promiſe nothing, do contain / What better is then Gold; who will diſdain / (That have an inkling of it,) there to look, / That they may find it?
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984 ↗; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, OCLC 222146756 ↗, page 17 ↗:
      This man then meeting with Chriſtian, and having ſome inckling of him, for Chriſtians ſetting forth from the City of Deſtruction was much noiſed abroad, not only in the Town, where he dwelt, but alſo it began to be the Town-talk in ſome other places.
    • 1911 October, John Galsworthy, “Quality”, in The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays, London: William Heinemann, published 1912, OCLC 247335479 ↗, page 15 ↗:
      These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother. For to make boots—such boots as he made—seemed to me then, and still seems to me, mysterious and wonderful.
    • 1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “निर्बल के बल राम [Nirbala ke bala Rama]”, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, OCLC 875661731 ↗, part I, page 171 ↗:
      Of the thing that sustains him through trials man has no inkling, much less knowledge, at the time.
  3. (Britain, dialectal) A desire#Noun|desire, an inclination.
Translations Verb
  1. present participle of inkle#English|inkle



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