kink

Etymology 1

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

verb

1. To laugh loudly.
2. To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.

noun

1. (Scotland, dialect) A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.

Etymology 2

From Dutch kink (“a twist or curl in a rope”), from Proto-Germanic *kenk-, *keng- (“to bend, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gengʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid, weave”). Compare Middle Low German kinke (“spiral screw, coil”), Old Norse kikna (“to bend backwards, sink at the knee”), Icelandic kengur (“a bend or bight; a metal crook”). Probably related to kick.

noun

1. A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.
   We couldn't get enough water to put out the fire because of a kink in the hose.
2. A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.
   They had planned to open another shop downtown, but their plan had a few kinks.
3. An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
   Never a Yankee was born or bred / Without that peculiar kink in his head / By which he could turn the smallest amount / Of whatever he had to the best account. 1856, Frederick Swartwout Cozzens, The Sparrowgrass Papers
4. (informal, countable or uncountable) Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
   To top it all off, Lynn is into kink. Last night she was really into kink. It's a good thing that today is my day off because I need the time to recuperate and think things over. 2013, Alison Tyler, H Is for Hardcore, page 13
5. (informal, countable) A person with peculiar sexual tastes.
   "What do they think you know?" "No more than I've told you. That he's a kink. He rapes people and kills people and spends too much money and flies grass in." 1985, John Dann MacDonald, Five Complete Travis McGee Novels, page 254
   “He's a kink. All I have to do is toss off my clothes and dance around his apartment while he sits and drools.” 2013, James Hadley Chase, A Can of Worms
6. (mathematics) A positive 1-soliton solution to the sine-Gordon equation.

verb

1. (transitive) To form a kink or twist.
2. (intransitive) To be formed into a kink or twist.