slink

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /slɪŋk/

Verb

slink (slinks, present participle slinking; past and past participle slunk)

1. (intransitive) To sneak about furtively.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 2,

     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.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9

     Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.

   • There were some few who slank obliquely from them as they passed.

2. (ambitransitive) To give birth to an animal prematurely.

   a cow that slinks her calf

Translations

• Italian: sgattaiolare
• Portuguese: espreitar
• Russian: кра́сться

Noun

slink

1. (countable) A furtive sneaking motion.
   • 1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat (page 30)

     His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.

2. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
3. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.
4. (obsolete) A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
5. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.

Translations

• Russian: недоно́сок

Adjective

slink

1. (Scotland) thin; lean

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