twink

• IPA^(key): /twɪŋk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (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,^[1]

     […] 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^[2], 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.

   Synonyms: instant, twinkling; see also Thesaurus:moment

   • 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^[3], 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)

2. (gay slang) A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair.

   Synonym: chicken

   Antonym: bear

   • 1978, Armistead Maupin, “Full moon in Seacliff”, in Tales of the City‎^[4], 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".

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

   Synonyms: (UK) 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^[5], →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.

5. (online gaming, mildly derogatory) 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. [from late 1990s]
   • 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.

6. (online gaming, derogatory, dated) A player in a in a multi-user dungeon (MUD) who engages in abusive min-maxing behaviour and exploits or took advantage of other players for personal gain. [1980s and 1990s]
   • 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.

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.

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

twink (uncountable)

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

• winkt

Unadapted borrowing from English twink.

twink m (plural twinks)

1. (LGBTQ slang) twink (a young attractive man)