Definition of "twink"

[…] chug of the fishermen’s boats, twink of lights in the harbor at night […]

1921, Almira Bailey, “The Bay on Sunday Morning” in Vignettes of San Francisco, San Francisco: The San Francisco Journal, p. 18

But even as he went, the smile began to come on his face, caught by the tail of the sturdy sister’s black eye, with its everlasting twink.

1934, D. H. Lawrence, “Smile”, in The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories‎, Hamburg: Albatross, page 101

[…] in a twink she won me to her love.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

I’d have known all about it in half a twink.

1893, Emily Sarah Holt, chapter 15, in All’s Well‎, London: J.F. Shaw, page 118

[…] and once again, in the twink of nothing, I was in another big high cab, all set to go hundreds of miles across the night, and was I happy!

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 3, in On the Road, Viking Press, part 1

“Where are the twinks anyway? They usually have the decency to provide one or two decorative twinks… Jesus, who needs to waste a night staring at these tired old Gucci queens.”

1978, Armistead Maupin, “Full moon in Seacliff”, in Tales of the City‎, New York: Ballantine, pages 253–254

[…] the narrow gay ideal of a slim or waiflike male body, as displayed by the young "twink".

2006, Dennis D. Waskul, Phillip Vannini, Body/Embodiment: Symbolic Interaction and the Sociology of the Body, page 135

“I thought testosterone would turn me into a man, but it turned me into a twink,” Tom, who is nonbinary, revealed to a cackling West Village audience last week at the Greenwich House Theater in Manhattan.

2023 December 14, Gina Cherelus, “The Trans Comic Looking for Love ‘at the End of the World’”, in The New York Times‎

I certainly don't consider myself a twink; however it seems that anyone who doesn't agree with another's point of view is automatically labelled as such.

1997, Flower of the Night, “Looking for a mud”, in rec.games.mud.diku (Usenet)

You will not find any stock. You will not find any easy mobs. You will not find any +100 dam 'big swords of I win'. You will not find twink mudders. You will not hear about how Jim the Kewl dOOd scored last night at his sister's birthday party. You will not find bots.

1997, Gov't Cheeze, “[AD/REQUEST] Builders and Players (twinks need not apply)”, in rec.games.mud.admin (Usenet)

Bind-on-account was an innovation that allowed players to transfer goods to their own twinks, but not to those of other players.

2015, Richard A. Bartle, MMOs from the Inside Out, page 154

Characters who were obvious twinks, possessing equipment well beyond their means, were subject to public criticism.

2016, Timothy Rowlands, Video Game Worlds: Working at Play in the Culture of EverQuest, page 71

Twinking happens in virtual worlds with PD, but not to the same extent.·

2004, Richard A. Bartle, Designing Virtual Worlds, page 429

However, the taboo surrounding twinking had all but disappeared by the time I started playing again in 2004.

2016, Timothy Rowlands, Video Game Worlds: Working at Play in the Culture of EverQuest

He used real money to buy large amounts of in-game gold then 'twinked' his new character with the best gear, upgrading as his level rapidly increased.

2018, Adam Drake, Shadow For Hire Books 1-4:

That the twinked little brat doesn't want to mention that the only reason she won a single game was that daddy cut her a fat check.

2020, Alex Maven, ForeverQuest: Online Battle Arena