Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also dinker, dinkle) the penis, esp. of a small boy or, if small, of an adult.

c.1864		parody in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 131: The head of my dink is red as a beet; / A good clean go, it tastes so sweet.
c.1888		in Stag Party 62: A knot-hole he happened to see / So he stuck his dink through it to pee .
1925		E. Field ‘A French Crisis’ in Facetiae Americana 17: She was as foul a minx / As ever fondled scabby cods or nursed gangrescent dinks.
1940		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 87: Quick as a wink she grabbed my dink / And shoved it up her grinder.
1946		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 84: There was a young bounder named Link / Who possessed a very tart dink.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 83: My mummy [...] used to put powder on my dinkle.
1968		F. Exley Fan’s Notes cap. 3: ‘[W]e'll grab one of the fags by his scrawny neck. [...] And then [. . .] [w]e'll make the fag stick his dinker into Paddy's jaw!’.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 320: Ding-dong, dingus, dink.
1981		S. King Roadwork in Bachman Books (1995) 464: Cuntlicking dinkrubbing ass wipe sonofawhoringbitch —.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 77: Sporting a Bull Durham sack on his dink, because, said Weasel reverently, Yonnie had a dose of clap.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 dink n. Synonym for penis or prick.
2011		F. Bill ‘Trespassing betwen Heaven and Hell’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] He called Everett a stupid-ass, dink-lovin’ jarhead.

2. (US) a flashy dresser.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: dink, n. Dude.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. any small person.

1972		A. Theroux Three Wogs 65: ‘Belt up.’ The child shook into hysteria now. ‘Wreeeaaaooooo!’ ‘Belt up, you dink’.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 156: Dink Literally, any physically small person, from dinky.

4. a derog. term for an Asian person.

1938		Observer 13 Nov. [DSUE].
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 185: Chinese [...] dink.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 115: usage: We sometimes get dinks in the corps at Duntroon; from Asia. You know, Singapore, Thailand and such.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 152: ‘Bet we could take off those dinks [i.e. Koreans] as easy as shit.’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 65: The delivery dinks pushed pills packed in with their pupu platters and pork fried rice.

5. (also rinky dink) a derog. term for a Vietnamese.

1967		Letter in Edelman Dear America (1985) 5/6 Oct. 69: The dink that threw it got knocked down with the blast from the M-79. [...] the rest of the dinks got away.
1978		L.K. Truscott IV Dress Gray (1979) 360: Back in Nam [...] shit going off all around you, and dinks, fuckin’ dinks ...
1981		W. Boyd ‘On the Yankee Station’ in On the Yankee Station (1982) 131: If the dinks were quick enough they could scrape it off.
1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 71: Use it when you should, but not to dig five dinks out of a clump of bushes.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 139: I’d poison the dinks if I had a chance.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 7: Rusting shrapnel lies scattered across this wire-strapped plateau like pebbles on the beach. The rinky-dinks beat on us with their hard enemy metal.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 357: In Vietnam, black guys, “Bloods,” called the Vietnamese gooks, slopes and dinks’.

6. (also dinkweed) a fool, a laughable or obnoxious figure.

1963		‘Kansas University Sl.’ AS XXXVIII:3 171: Some of the less frequent, but more expressive phrases are: dink (General) [etc.].
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 105: Dink An obnoxious person. A person without much social or academic ability. An ugly person, male. A small or insignificant person.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 17: Safeway, dink. As in supermarket.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 754: Sure [...] you was checkin, dinkweed.
1989		(con. 1956) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 7: Chicky [...] made a face that said, ‘Who’s this dink?’.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 122: After a few days of wandering around Tay Ninh, I began to feel like a dink who had deserted his outfit.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 43: I’m [...] trying to look like a loverstudguy an not some scared-to-death dink.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 134: This dink owns a juice joint out in the Valley.

7. the Vietnamese language.

1983

(con. 1970) S. Wright Meditations in Green (1985) 147: See the country. Brush up on your dink. Wish I could go.

8. (US) some form of machine operator.

2023

(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 113: Reporters and camera dinks piled out. [...] They climbed the gate and swarmed the front lawn.