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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PINK, v.², n.³, adv.². Also peenk-, ¶puink, and freq. forms pinkle, peenkle.

I. v. 1. Of small drops of moisture: to drip, drop, fall with a sharp, tinkling sound, plop (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.; Ork., Abd. 1965). Freq. form pinkle, reduplic. pinkle-pankle, to drip or trickle continually; vbl.n. pinklan, peenklin, a splashing sound, a dripping, peenkle-pankle, “the sound of liquid in a bottle” (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 382).Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 30:
An' a' the time the tears ran down her cheek, An' pinked o'er her chin upon her keek.Sc. 1815 West Briton (14 April):
O'er crystalled roof and sparry wall Where pinking drops perpetual fall.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 241:
“I dare say there is a dreeping” — “Ay, I heard the gude wife say it could pinkle pankle”.Bnff. 1869 W. Knight Auld Yule 63:
Oh ye whase cauldriffe snoutties drap, Like pinkin' weet frae riggin' crap.Abd. 1891 Bon-Accord (31 Jan.) 20:
The caul sweat pinkin' aff o' their broos like dew.Ork. 1949 “Lex” But-end Ballans 21:
Dere wisno a soond i' a' de warld bit a peenklan i' de tang.Abd. 1957:
I've heard a Boddamer speak of tears pinkin doon someone's cheeks.

2. tr. To strike with a small object so as to make a tiny sharp sound (Cld. 1825 Jam.; Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.; Lth., wm. and s.Sc. 1965); to impel or catapult a small object through the air, to “ping” (Ayr.⁴ 1928; ne.Sc. 1965), to hit with a bullet.Jam.:
Pink that bool out the ring.Lnk. 1902 A. Wardrop Hamely Sk. 160:
A real day's pinkin' at the grouse.Dmf. 1957 Dmf. & Gall. Standard (26 Jan.):
Then there was the stall with coloured glass balls or egg shells dancing up and down on the end of a jet of water. It was delightful for us to see some expert “pinking” them off one after another.Abd. 1963 People's Jnl. (20 April) 11:
Wull put it atween his finger and thoom and, afore we kent faut he wis at, pinked it across the kirk.

3. To hit in gen., beat, belabour, chastise, “go for”. Hence pinker, fig., “something that is superlatively large or good” (Uls. 1924 W. Lutton Montiaghisms 31), a whopper, “stunner”, “thumper”; pinkin, a beating, thrashing (s.Sc. 1965).Cld. 1880 Jam.:
I'll pink ye for that yet.Edb. 1895 J. Tweeddale Moff xvii.:
Sandy 'e'll pink 'im next time.

4. In freq. form, of the pangs of hunger: to prick, to produce a prickling or tingling sensation (Rxb. 1965).Ayr. 1822 Galt Steamboat xi.:
One day, when I felt the wonted two o'clock pinkling in my belly, [I] stepped into an eating house to get a check of something.Sc. 1837 Chambers's Jnl. (4 Nov.) 328:
It's a kind of weakness, that makes me dizzy at times, and a kind of pinkling about my stomach.

II. n. 1. A drop of liquid in motion, a drip, the sound made by a drip, “plink” (Cld. 1880 Jam.).Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 126:
A cud get nae sleep for the pink o' a drap it a hard a' nicht.

2. A turn in a game, “shot”, “a break or division in a game of children,” particularly in that called Backies (Sh. a.1838 Jam. MSS. X. 229).

3. A blow, whack (Ork. 1929 Marw., puink). Cf. I. 3.

III. adv. With a dripping sound, “plink”.Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 126:
The wattir wiz comin' pink pink doon fae the reef.