tinkle
A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimesA light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.
» The wind made the crystals tinkle.
Luornu · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.
Klingeln
звя́каньеzvjákanʹje, звонzvon
a light clear metallic sound as of a small bell
(UK, countable, informal, uncountable)A telephone call.
Give me a tinkle when you arrive.
Telefonat, Anruf
(countable, euphemistic, informal, uncountable)An act of urination.
Pipi
(countable, euphemistic, informal, uncountable)Urine.
Examples
7 sentencesThe wind made the crystals tinkle.
The wind chimes tinkled in the breeze.
Every now and then, the wind chimes tinkle a melody.
deDas Windspiel erklingt momentweise melodisch. — Yorwba
If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie.
The tinkles of sleigh bells among the snowy hills came like elfin chimes through the frosty air.
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 3
Origin
From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate withFrom Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tinkelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tinkelen (“to tinkle”), German Low German tinkeln (“to flicker, glitter, sparkle”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: tinklesSynonyms
3 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.