Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Skink, Skynk, v. [ME skynke (Chaucer), e.m.E. skink(e, skinck (16th c.), MDu. schenken, schinken (cf. OE scencan) to draw wine; make a present of. Cf. also ON skenkja.]

1. tr. To pour (wine) (in a glass, etc.); to offer or serve (wine) (to a person).In Doug., freq. in the phrase to birl and skink (skink and birl).The quot. 1602 Shetland Sheriff Ct. (ed.) 56 n. should perhaps be assigned to sense 3. 1513 Doug. i iv 67.
The wyne thar with in veschell gret and small … To thame he byrlis and skynkis fast 1513 Doug. vii ii 90.
In flacon and in skull Thai skynk the wyne 1513 Doug. viii iv 200.
And with gud will do skynk and birl the wynys 1513 Doug. xiii ix 26.
And gan do skynk and byrll the nobill wyne

2. To fill with liquor, to ‘charge’ (a glass, etc.) (also, to a person). c1500 Interl. Droich 136.
Skynk first to me the can 1513 Doug. vii ii 62.
Now skynk, and offer Jupiter cowpis full 1699 Fugitive Poetry II xliii 5/16.
Bon Voyage to our fleet, I'm resolved to skink one brimmer or two at our parting

3. To give as a present. 1508 (c1580) Edinb. B. Rec. I 117.
Vpoun his gude warkmaneschip and gyding thai skynk him the tymmer of the auld ruf 1602 Shetland Sheriff Ct. (ed.) 56 n.
Nathing skinkit to the fold (margin)

b. In fig. context: To hand over, renounce, give up. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1894) 180.
I would have skinked over and foregone my part of paradise and salvation, for a breakfast of dead, moth-eaten earth 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1894) 186.
To make it a matter of bairn's play, to skink and drink over paradise