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Added 9 October 2026

kink

/ˈkɪŋk/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about kink at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A painful muscle spasm especially in the neck or back (`rick' and `wrick' are British).
A sharp bend in a line produced when a line having a loop is pulled tight.
A person with unusual sexual tastes.

verb

Curl tightly.
crimp hair
Form a curl, curve, or kink.
the cigar smoke curled up at the ceiling

Origin

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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