Twink

//twɪŋk// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

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

    "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 […]"

  2. 2
    The chaffinch.
  3. 3
    A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair. slang

    "“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.”"

  4. 4
    Correction fluid or correction tape. New-Zealand, uncountable
  5. 5
    Synonym of correction fluid.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A very short moment of time.

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

  2. 7
    A weak or effeminate man, whether gay or not. derogatory, slang

    "“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. 8
    A lower-level character in a roleplaying game (MMO) which is artificially overgeared or overpowered, due to being given advanced equipment or resources via a higher-level character controlled by the same player. Internet, derogatory, mildly

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

  4. 9
    A player in a multi-user dungeon (MUD) who engages in abusive min-maxing behaviour and exploits or took advantage of other players for personal gain. Internet, dated, derogatory

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To twinkle; to sparkle.
  2. 2
    To chirp or twitter.
  3. 3
    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. derogatory, intransitive

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

  4. 4
    To wink. dialectal

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

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”).

Etymology 3

Imitative of the sound.

Etymology 4

Imitative of the sound.

Etymology 5

From twinkie. More at Twink § Etymology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 6

From twinkie. More at Twink § Etymology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 7

Genericized trademark of Twink, a brand of correction fluid in New Zealand.

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: twink