Wiktionary

twink

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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”).

Verb

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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.
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Noun

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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
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Etymology 2

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Imitative of the sound.

Noun

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twink (plural twinks)

  1. The chaffinch.
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Verb

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twink (third-person singular simple present twinks, present participle twinking, simple past and past participle twinked)

  1. To chirp or twitter.

Etymology 3

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From twinkie.

Noun

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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.
  4. (gaming, derogatory) A player (or character created by a player) in a multi-user dungeon or other roleplaying game who engages in obnoxious or abusive behaviour, especially one who uses a higher-level character to give advanced equipment to one of their own lower-level characters.
    • 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.
    • 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.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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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.

Etymology 4

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

Noun

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twink (uncountable)

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

Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English twink.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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twink m (plural twinks)

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