squink

English

Etymology

Imitative; compare plink, quonk.

Noun

squink (plural squinks)

A short, high-pitched metallic sound
- 1937, William Byron Mowery, The Black Automatic‎^[1], Boston: Little, Brown and Company, →LCCN:
  Immediately began that shrill and irritating squink-squink-squink.
- 1996 Peter Mehlman, "The Soul Mate," Seinfeld, Season 8, Episode 2 (aired September 26, 1996), Spoken by Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
  Well, I hear three distinct sounds: a low rumple, followed by a metallic squink […] followed by a mysterious glonk.
- 2006, Dax Herrera, Edgar N Vective: Paranormal Detective,, page 5:
  Edgar heard a click and a squink, and just when he thought the hood was about to pop open, it exploded with a tremendous blast and he was knocked clear across the garage.
- 2007, D. Harlan Wilson, Dr. identity, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia, Raw Dog Screaming Press, page 91:
  It stared at the audience with wide white eyes, then tapped the side of its throat, producing a drawn-out metallic squink.
A cryptid supposedly found in Washington State, the Columbia River sand squink, which has a body like a fox, the head and ears of a jackrabbit, and a bushy tail like a squirrel.
- 1939, Henry H. Tryon, Fearsome Critters:
  The Squink isn't particularly fussy about its diet, but has a great fondness for electric eels.
- 1998, W. Haden Blackman, The Field Guide to North American Monsters, page 144:
  The Sand Squink possesses an amazing ability to generate electric charges by touching the tip of its bushy tail to either of the nubs at the tips of its ears.
- 2014, Bathroom Readers' Institute, Uncle John's Facts to Go Modern Mythology:
  Normally a timid creature, when the sand squink eats the eels it gains both courage and an electric charge;
- 2016, Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, page 90:
  The sand squink is an egg-laying creature; its eggs are made of a plastic-like material so as to protect the unborn young within from the mother's electrical discharge.
An instance of squinking.
- 1995, Jonathan Evan Maslow, Torrid zone: seven voices from the Gulf Coast, page 253:
  “Morning!” She did her best squink.
- 2005, Laurie Notaro, We thought you would be prettier: true tales of the dorkiest girl alive, page 188:
  Okay, I'm going to pick up my car keys very carefully so as to not wake the squinky eye in case it's resting, and I'm going to go out the door and get into the car. You know, though, it's weird, once the squink goes away, you kind of realize that in a way, you sort of liked it. And sort of miss it..
- 2014, Mark Richard Luther, Richard Tarbox, page 30:
  The ghostly light hover in one spot, growing brighter absorbing the fear that is dripping like sweat over Richard's face. His eyes have been closed to a squink, seeing only a blurred shapeless bright light under his eyelids.

Verb

squink (third-person singular simple present squinks, present participle squinking, simple past and past participle squinked)

(transitive) To scrunch up, squinch (one's face, nose, etc).
- c. 1912, Carolyn Wells, Marjorie at Seacote, page 40:
  "Do it again," he said. "How do you ever squink up your nose like that! Bet you can't do it three times in succession."
- 1944, Jack Jones, The Man David: An Imaginative Presentation, Based on Fact, of the Life of David LLoyd George from 1880 to 1914, page 99:
  “The right hon. gentleman” squinked his eyes until his monocle dented cheek and forehead bones.
- 2016, Nancy Bailey Miller, “Outside the Tackle Shop”, in Tacking Lessons, page 23:
  Small coins jingle from his pocket
  to her furrowed hand.
  She squinks her toothless smile,
  then hobbles down the cobbled street.

Anagrams

quinks