Etymology: Goes with clink v.¹ Compare Dutch klink.

Etymology: The evidence appears to indicate that the name was proper to the Southwark ‘Clink’, and thence transferred elsewhere; but the converse may have been the fact. If the name was originally descriptive, various senses of clink , e.g. ‘to fasten securely’ (compare ‘to get the clinch’, clinch n.¹ 7), might have given rise to it. Compare also clink n.⁴

Etymology: Meaning and origin uncertain. The Glossary to first ed., professedly based on Spenser's authority, explains it as ‘key-hole’; for the word in such a sense no etymology is known, and the reference to clicket is quite erroneous. Some identify the word with Dutch klink, German and Danish klinke, Swedish klinka, (also French clinche, clenche) ‘latch of a door’. Compare also ‘clink, a small or fine crack’. S. O. Addy Gloss. Words Sheffield 1888.

Etymology: By-form of clinch n.¹

Etymology: A weak verb found, with the noun of same form, only from 14th cent. Dutch has a strong verb of identical form, klinken (Middle Dutch klincken and klinghen ) ‘to sound, clink, ring, tinkle’, for which High German has the strong klingen , Old High German chlingan , Low German klingen , East Frisian klingen (klung , klungen ) ‘to ring, sound’, and klinken (klunk , klunken ) ‘to clink glasses’, West Frisian klinckjen , klingjen . Also Swedish klinga strong (Old Swedish also klinga , klinka weak), Danish klinge strong ‘to sound, ring’, klinke ‘to clink glasses’. Thus there appears a double stem-form, kling- , klink- , evidently (like the Latin and Greek words cited under clang n.) of echoic origin; one of these forms was probably a later modification (? perhaps expressing a variety of sound); the evidence appears to favour the priority of kling- . No trace of either form has yet been found in Old English (where there is a strong verb clingan in an entirely different sense: see cling v.¹), and thus we cannot tell whether Middle English clinken went back with the Dutch to an Old Low German *klinkan , or was of later adoption or origination in England. Compare the still later clank n., and its correspondence with Dutch klank. The sense-development is greatly parallel to that of clank; the transition from sound to sudden action is a common one, especially in Scots; compare bang, boom, bum, chop, clank, clap, pop, etc. (Rare by-forms are clenk, clinch, cling.)

Etymology: Northern form corresponding to clinch v.¹, clench v.¹; identical in form and sense with Dutch, East Frisian, Low German klinken, Danish klinke, Swedish klinka. Clink is probably simply a later phonetic form of clenk = clench < Old English clęnc(e)an, the change of -eng, -enk, to -ing, -ink, being usual in Middle English; compare think from Old English þencan, also stink, stench, blink, blench, bink, bench, earlier benk; also Inglish = English. But klink might be the Danish or Low German word, and clinch a result of its action upon clench.