kink
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).
Alternative forms
Verb
kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)
Noun
kink (plural kinks)
Etymology 2
From Dutch kink (“a twist or curl in a rope”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *kenk-, *keng- (“to bend, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gengʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid, weave”). Compare Middle Low German kinke (“spiral screw, coil”), Old Norse kikna (“to bend backwards, sink at the knee”), Icelandic kengur (“a bend or bight; a metal crook”). Probably related to kick.
Alternative forms
- k1nk, k!nk, k/nk, k*nk (bowdlerizations)
Noun
kink (countable and uncountable, plural kinks)
- A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.
- We couldn't get enough water to put out the fire because of a kink in the hose.
- A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.
- They had planned to open another shop downtown, but their plan had a few kinks.
- An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
- 1856, Frederick Swartwout Cozzens, The Sparrowgrass Papers:
- Never a Yankee was born or bred / Without that peculiar kink in his head / By which he could turn the smallest amount / Of whatever he had to the best account.
- (informal, countable or uncountable) Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
- Synonym: paraphilia
- Antonym: normophilia
- 2013, Alison Tyler, H Is for Hardcore, page 13:
- To top it all off, Lynn is into kink. Last night she was really into kink. It's a good thing that today is my day off because I need the time to recuperate and think things over.
- (informal, countable) A person with peculiar sexual tastes.
- Synonym: kinkster
- 1985, John Dann MacDonald, Five Complete Travis McGee Novels, page 254:
- "What do they think you know?"
"No more than I've told you. That he's a kink. He rapes people and kills people and spends too much money and flies grass in."
- 2013, James Hadley Chase, A Can of Worms:
- “He's a kink. All I have to do is toss off my clothes and dance around his apartment while he sits and drools.”
- (mathematics) A positive 1-soliton solution to the sine-Gordon equation.
Derived terms
Translations
tight curl, twist, or bend
|
difficulty or flaw that impedes operation
|
peculiarity in sexual behaviour or taste
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See also
Verb
kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)
- (transitive) To form a kink or twist.
- (intransitive) To be formed into a kink or twist.
Derived terms
Translations
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “kink”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
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