Definition of "clink"

clink¹

/klɪŋk/

noun
plural clinks
1. (onomatopoeia) The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
  Quotations
  When Frere had come down, an hour before, the prisoners were all snugly between their blankets. They were not so now; though, at the first clink of the bolts, they would be back again in their old positions, to all appearances sound asleep.
  1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V
2. Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
verb
third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked
1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a clinking sound; to make a sound of metal on metal or glass on glass; to strike materials such as metal or glass against one another.
  Quotations
  The broken sheds look'd sad and strange, / Unlifted was the clinking latch, / Weeded and worn the ancient thatch / upon the lonely moated grange.
  1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, stanza I, page 10
  On the other side: the rich, beautiful tapestry of WASP culture that constituted Levis's life—friends playing horseshoes at backyard cocktail parties, where girls swanned in chaise longues, clinking their gin and tonics.
  2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2. (humorous, dated) To rhyme.

clink²

/klɪŋk/

noun
plural clinks
1. (dated, slang) A prison.

clink³

/klɪŋk/

verb
third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked
1. (transitive, Scotland) To clinch; to rivet.