to chink
1
8.7
- verb
- /tʃɪŋk/
- Specialized
:
calafatear
- The building of this cabin and her working like a man beside him, felling the trees, raising the dressed logs, and chinking the gaps.
- chink the logs
- chink with mud
Examples
-
Your gray pinstripe is so... gray; know what I mean?" On Thanksgiving Day, Delia slept late, and she idled the morning away chinking tea and reading in bed, with the cat curled up beside her.
Fiction book (1995) -
I remember the envelope was thick enough to chink a good-sized hole in a stone wall.
Fiction book (1990) -
It was ranch style, a log house chinked with mortar.
Fiction book (1993) -
It's strange to think that hundreds of miles north of here, the cabin still sits in its clearing, the one room that Tom had chinked the summer before; the long wall with the window, the short wall with two Inupiat prints.
Fiction book (1995) -
To prevent drafts, we need to chink the gaps between the logs with sealant.
-
The carpenter advised us to chink the small openings in the wall to keep the house warm.
-
After noticing the air leaks, I decided to chink all the cracks around the windows.
Synonyms
4
6.1
To fill small holes and cracks in walls before painting
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
1
7.4
A small weakness in a person, group, or system that others can use
- Informal
A small weakness in someone's reasons that other people can use
How Sealed
2
3.6
457
2.5
- Specialized
6
6.7
- Specialized
1
8.7
243
2.0
Surface Forms
Etymology
Chink meaning 'to fill small cracks' comes from the same old chink for a 'gap' and then grew to mean 'fill the gap' when people packed mortar or moss between logs in a wall. That's why to chink a cabin is to close the little openings to keep out wind and cold.