Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chink n.1

[echoic]

1. money; also in pl. as chinks.

[UK]T. Tusser Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1878) 134: As oft as ye bargaine, for better or wurse, to buie it the cheaper, haue chinkes in thy purse.
[UK]Jeronimo (1605) Bii: Oh Duckets, dainty ducks forgive me, Duckets, ile fetch you duck inough or gold, And chink ma[k]es, the punck wanton and the Bawd to winke.
[UK]Wily Beguiled 5: O this red chink, and silver coine, it is the consolation of the World.
[UK]Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 83: He (staggering) is vpheld to purse some Chincks.
[UK]J. Taylor ‘Anagrams and Satyrs’ in Works (1869) II 260: The Mizer with his lecherie of Chinke, / On earth will giue his dropsie soule to drinke.
[UK] ballad in Wardroper (1969) 143: From hence you must slink / If you swear, and have no chink.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 21 18–25 Oct. 179: Of Terms of Trade, and Terms of Art, / Of Lillies Rules, and Rules to F--t: / Of Rules to eate, and Rules to drink, / Of Rules to save, or spend your chink.
[UK]Antidote Against Melancholy in Ebsworth Choyce Drollery (1876) 326: Come drink, we cannot want Chink, / Observe how my pockets do gingle.
[UK] ‘The Petticoat wagge, The Answer’ in Ebsworth Westminster Drolleries (1875) ii 14: Some say the world is full of pelfe; But I think There’s no Chinke.
[UK]Rochester (attrib.) Sodom Prologue: You all love bawdy things, as Whores love chink.
[UK] ‘Against, & For Life’ Poetical Remaines of Rochester, Etherege, and Others 90: Since for the dull Chink, honest C--l or B--n, / With Nymphs fair as she, and more loving, can fit one.
[UK] ‘The True World’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 69: They say the World is full of Pelf, / But I think there’s no Chink.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 69: [as cit. 1700].
[Scot]A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) I 6: The world is rul’d by asses, And the wise are sway’d by chink.
[Ire]W. Wilkes ‘Humours of the Black Dog’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 261: I want a little Chink: / For upon Tick I never draw my Drink.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 234: After we have work’d their buff, / We then shall all get chink enough.
[Ire]J. O’Keeffe Fontainebleau in Dramatic Works (1798) II 206: Let French and English mingle, [...] while to me they bring the chink.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
[UK]Sporting Mag. Sept. VIII 329/1: He paid like a prince [...] / While the landlady, touching the chink, / Cried –‘Sir should you travel this country again [etc.]’.
[UK] ‘Landlady Casey’ in Holloway & Black (1975) I 153: And while to me they tip the chink / Faith, let the glasses jingle.
C. Dibdin Yngr Jew Pedlar 1: Ve buys and sells and gets de chink.
[US]R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 26: Out with the shiners—out with the chink.
[UK]Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) II 126: Come, come, the cash, the chink, and no gammon.
[UK] ‘Unfortunate Billy’ in Holloway & Black (1975) I 267: For while his fob contained the chink / He was the rolling kiddy.
[US]N.Y. Daily Express 26 July 2/3: Hello Stranger, and will ye give us a good note for five dollars in real chink?
[UK]J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 327: Here, snatch up these trifles, and give us the chinks for another hundred.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Apr. 3/2: The chink in his pockets was remarkably piano.
[UK] ‘Leary Man’ ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue (1857) 43: At knock’emsdown and tiddlywink, / To be a sharp you must not shrink / But be a brick and sport your chink.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 55/1: They were obliged to ‘lumber’ some of the things off from the ‘bed,’ to raise the ‘chink’.
[UK]Old Hunks in Darkey Drama 5 50: I took de chink, and sent him out for liquor and dis pie.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 2/4: After spending his chink / On every one who would drink / He’s a ‘Salt River tar’ young man.
[UK]Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea II i: No chink, no drink?
N. Otago Times (NZ) 30 May 1/7: The young vandals of today use ‘chink’ for money.
[Aus]‘Tom Bluegum’ Backblocks’ Parson 181: ‘Say, mister, how much jink [sic] ’ll take to square us?’ ‘My fee is two guineas,’ replied the preacher.
[Aus]‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 8 June 5/5: [T]her madeter order Governor ain’t got ther chink, or don’t like ter part ef he has.
[UK]‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Duty Calls’ Sporting Times 13 May 1/3: But the culprit’s savoir-faire, and his command of ready chink, / A reaction caused.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 19 June 3rd sect. 17/7: Don't forget that tbe Children’s Protection Society have the hall next Wednesday night at the Star. It’s a bobby-dazzler of a programme, and the kiddies get the chink.
[US]O. Johnson Varmint 61: Save half your chink, get everything second hand.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 404: He’ve got the chink ad lib.
[Aus]Dly Mercury (Mackay, Qld) 15 July 9/1: [ex Dly Mail, London] For the word money itself, in Mid-Victorian England, actually more than 40 slang terms were in common use. Few are the survivors. Chink, tin, and dibbs survive merely in schools those strongholds of conservatism.
[UK]E. Raymond Child of Norman’s End (1967) 82: He’s got plenty of chink.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 43/1: Chink. (Rare) Money.
[SA]A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 32: Here I am right out of chink.
[UK]Indep. 1 June 20: As a Geordie might say, £460,000 is a ‘canny load of chink’.

2. (UK Und.) a tankard.

[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I’m a Sneak for Chinks or Feeders; I’m a Thief for Tankards or Spoons.
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving .

3. (Aus. und.) in pl., burglary tools.

[Aus]Truth (Perth) 2 Jan. 4/8: Workin hard & silently / With the fag end of a candle / And his chinks, that’s tools, you see.
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 3 Jan. 10/5: They ain’t like a decent cracksman, Who do go a roamin’ round, / With his bag of chinks, & Jemmy, / Lookin’ for wot may be found.