twink

• IPA^(key): /twɪŋk/, [tʰw̥ɪŋk]

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

From Middle English twinken, twynken, from Old English *twincian (“to wink; twinkle”), from Proto-West Germanic *twinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *twinkōną, an augmented form (with formative *-kōną; see English -k) of Proto-Germanic *twint- (“to twinkle”). Cognate with Middle High German zwinken, zwingen, modern German zwinkern (“to wink; twinkle”), Middle Dutch twinc (“a blink”), Middle High German zwinzen, zwinzern (“to blink, blink hard”).

twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)

1. To twinkle; to sparkle.
2. (now dialectal) To wink.

• twinkle

twink (plural twinks)

1. One or more very small, short bursts of light.

   Synonyms: twinkle, glint

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

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

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

     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.

2. A very short moment of time.

   Synonym: twinkling

   • 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, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

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

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

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

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 3, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:

     […] 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!

Imitative of the sound.

twink (plural twinks)

1. The chaffinch.

twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)

1. To chirp or twitter.

From twinkie.

twink (plural twinks)

1. (gay slang) A young, attractive, slim male, usually having little body hair.

   Synonym: chicken

   Antonym: bear

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

     “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.”

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

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

2. (derogatory, slang) A weak or effeminate man, whether gay or not.

   Synonyms: (British) poof, (especially US) fag, faggot; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man

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

     “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.

3. (gaming, derogatory) A player (or character created by a player) in a multi-user dungeon or other roleplaying game who engages in obnoxious or abusive behaviour, especially one who uses a higher-level character to give advanced equipment to one of their own lower-level characters.
   • 1997, Flower of the Night, “Looking for a mud”, in rec.games.mud.diku (Usenet):

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

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

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

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

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

twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)

1. (intransitive, gaming, derogatory) To engage in obnoxious or abusive behaviour in a multi-user dungeon or other roleplaying game, for example by griefing or by equipping a low-level character with advanced equipment from another player.
   • 2004, Richard A. Bartle, Designing Virtual Worlds, page 429:

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

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

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

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

     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.

   • 2020, Alex Maven, ForeverQuest: Online Battle Arena:

     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.

From the name of the Twink brand of correction fluid.

twink (uncountable)

1. (New Zealand) Correction fluid or correction tape.

• winkt