Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make a quick, evasive turn: "He jinked every five seconds, and now brought his tank left again” ( Tom Clancy).
- v. To cause (a vehicle or an aircraft, for example) to make a quick, evasive turn.
- n. A quick, evasive turn.
- n. Rambunctious play; frolic.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To move nimbly.
- To make a quick turn; dodge; elude a person by dodging; escape.
- In the card-games of spoil-five and forty-five, to win the game by winning all the tricks in one hand.
- To elude; dodge.
- To cheat; trick.
- n. A quick illusory turn; the act of eluding another.
- n. In the card-games of spoil-five and forty-five, the winning of all the tricks in a hand by one side.
- To jingle; chink: as, the money jinked.
- n. The sharp jingle of coins; hence, coin itself; chink.
Wiktionary
- n. A quick evasive turn.
- v. intransitive To make a quick evasive turn.
- v. transitive To cause a vehicle to make a quick evasive turn.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To move quickly, esp. with a sudden turn; hence, to dodge; to escape by a quick turn; -- obs. or dial., except as a hunting term in pig-sticking.
- v. (Card Playing) In the games of spoilfive and forty-five, to win the game by taking all five tricks; also, to play to win all five tricks, losing what has been already won if unsuccessful.
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Delap has picked up a booking for a foul in the build-up.80 mins Excellent challenge from Shawcross inside the box, as Aston Villa break rapidly from a Stoke corner –Delfouneso feeding Albrighton down by the corner of the six-yard area and the latter looking to jink his way past the defender but finding the ball pinched off his toes as he skips down towards the goalline.”
The Guardian: Stoke v Aston Villa - as it happened | Paolo Bandini
“McGeady was again at the heart of the move, his jink and shot forcing the goalkeeper Sergei Pareiko to parry.”
The Guardian: Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland | Euro 2012 play-off match report
“At this point, the reader/listener is able to escape into the wonderful world of imagination and follow Jack and his sister, Marie on their "think-a-ma-jink" adventures.”
“Then Starks on a screen does wonderfully well to jink and jive for the first down at the half way line.”
The Guardian: New York Giants 37 Green Bay Packers 20 - as it happened | Steve Busfield
“But you trusted entirely these rare moments of triumphant self-expression: every jink and turn by Diego Maradona at the 1986 World Cup was hard-won, brutally paid for and born out of absolute courage and commitment.”
The Guardian: World Cup 2010: How a love of Spain can make for a sterile affair
“Irish wing-jink disappointment Aiden McGeady wants to leave Celtic.”
The Guardian: Football transfer rumours: Liverpool's Fernando Torres to stay or go?
““I keep thinking to myself, shall I jink a little,” says the prematurely aged protagonist.”
“Some were the briefest imaginable record of a human life that had been extinguished in a random and unnecessary manner, perhaps by the tiniest jink on an aerial turn or the slightest misjudgment of pressure from a foot on the rudder bar.”
“The best of Bothroyd was lovely to watch: his perfectly weighted pass to play Bellamy in for the opening goal after 13 minutes following Kaspars Gorkss unfortunate slip Gorkss would have his revenge, heading the equaliser five minutes later; the sprint from halfway that forced Paddy Kenny into a brave save; and the control and jink that drew the penalty-that-might-have-been.”
The Guardian: Adel Taarabt's guile and craft sink Cardiff and have QPR flying high
“Lions, too, have formidable acceleration, even better than gazelles, who have more stamina and the ability to jink.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jink’.
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phrontistery - j
from phrontistery.info
jabberwock, jabot, jacent, jacinthe, jack, jackanapes, jack-block, jackstaff, jackstay, jackyard, jacobin, jaconet and 137 more...
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Move it!
Awesome actions or motions.
celerity, peremptory, volplane, founder, whirl, gallopade, rathe, jounce, jive, jink, jibe, jectigation and 17 more...
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Scrabble words which start with the l...
juvenile, juvenal, jutty, jute, jut, justness, justly, justle, justify, justice, juster, just and 534 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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hauntedtapedeck's Words
hinterland, palimpsest, palisade, thaumaturgy, sangfroid, frisson, crick, patchwork, susurration, disconsolate, septum, elbow and 119 more...
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"J" Words
Scrabble List
jut, jus, jun, jow, jeu, jin, jot, ajee, dojo, fuji, jake, jamb and 37 more...
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A-Hunting We Will Go
Hunting terms. See also http://www.wordnik.com/lists/hunting-cries
gorgeaunt, forloyne, dryfoot, foothot, fimashing, allay, mort, coursing, strake, battue, jink, jack and 27 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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I've Run a Fowles.
Words from The Magus
magus, bougainvillea, innermost, numen, imbricate, bilges, sandal-wood, incorporeal, fleshpot, desipience, batrachian, caique and 82 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for jink.

john “As he dived in on the target in his A-4, his surface-to-air missile warning system sounded: A SAM had a lock on him. ‘I knew I should roll out and fly evasive maneuvers,’ McCain writes. ‘The A-4 is a small, fast’ aircraft that ‘can outmaneuver a tracking SAM.’
But McCain didn't ‘jink.’ Instead, he stayed on target and let fly his bombs — just as the SAM blew his wing off.�?
Rolling Stone, Make-Believe Maverick, by Tim Dickinson, October 6, 2008 Oct 6, 2008