Definition of "slink"

As we do turn our backsFrom our companion thrown into his grave,So his familiars to his buried fortunesSlink 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.

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ii]

Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.

1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

The leaving us was just a feint; / Back here to London did he slink, / And now works on without a wink / Of sleep, and we are on the brink

1842, Robert Browning, Waring

Joseph Poorgrass, in the background, twitched, and his lips became dry with fear of some terrible consequences as he saw Bathsheba summarily speaking, and Henery slinking off to a corner.

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […]

Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none.

1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Stillness”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, book II (The Earth under the Martians), page 239

How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […] .

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎

Earnest slunk backstage.

2013 November, Glenn Thrush, “Locked in the Cabinet”, in POLITICO‎

I have arrived to catch the 0830 TfW service to Crewe, worked by a tatty and unrefurbished 175114. As if ashamed of its appearance, it slinks into Platform 2 (instead of Platform 1, where it was expected). No announcement had been made, and we leave without any fanfare.

2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67

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

1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat, page 30

It is an ascertained fact that young or “slink” veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhœa, more especially when that disease is epidemic.

1868, Charles Alexander Cameron, The Stock-Feeder's Manual‎