link

Etymology 1

From Middle English linke, lenke, from a merger of Old English hlenċe, hlenċa (“ring; chainlink”) and Old Norse *hlenkr, hlekkr (“ring; chain”); both from Proto-Germanic *hlankiz (“ring; bond; fettle; fetter”). Used in English since the 14th century. Related to lank.

noun

1. A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.
   The mayor’s assistant serves as the link to the media.
   And so by double lynkes enchaynde themselues in louers life 1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres
2. One element of a chain or other connected series.
   The third link of the silver chain needs to be resoldered.
   The weakest link.
3. Abbreviation of hyperlink.
   The link on the page points to the sports scores.
4. (computing) The connection between buses or systems.
   A by-N-link is composed of N lanes.
5. (mathematics) A space comprising one or more disjoint knots.
6. (Sussex) a thin wild bank of land splitting two cultivated patches and often linking two hills.
   They used formerly to live in caves or huts dug into the side of a bank or "link," and lined with heath or straw. 2008, Richard John King, A Handbook for Travellers in Kent and Sussex
7. (figurative) an individual person or element in a system
   But know that God is the strongest link. 2010, James O. Young, My Sheep Know My Voice: anointed poetry, AuthorHouse, page 32
   The fuse is the weakest link in the system. As such, the fuse is also the most valuable link in the system. 2010, William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, Universal Principles of Design, RockPort, page 262
   […] This is so that nobody can change the way every link must talk about the formula that I taught to make a real Chain of Universal Love and not a Chain of Love of a group or sect. 2010, Stephen Fairweather, The Missing Book of Genesis, AuthorHouse, page 219
8. Anything doubled and closed like a link of a chain.
9. A sausage that is not a patty.
10. (kinematics) Any one of the several elementary pieces of a mechanism, such as the fixed frame, or a rod, wheel, mass of confined liquid, etc., by which relative motion of other parts is produced and constrained.
11. (engineering) Any intermediate rod or piece for transmitting force or motion, especially a short connecting rod with a bearing at each end; specifically (in steam engines) the slotted bar, or connecting piece, to the opposite ends of which the eccentric rods are jointed, and by means of which the movement of the valve is varied, in a link motion.
12. (surveying) The length of one joint of Gunter's chain, being the hundredth part of it, or 7.92 inches, the chain being 66 feet in length.
13. (chemistry) A bond of affinity, or a unit of valence between atoms; applied to a unit of chemical force or attraction.
14. (in the plural) The windings of a river; the land along a winding stream.
    'Dame Foljambe,' said the old man, 'the march of thy tale is like the course of the Wye, seventeen miles of links and windings down a fair valley five miles long. […]' 1822, Allan Cunningham, “The King of the Peak”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 1, page 222
15. (broadcasting) An introductory cue.
    Too much talk on a music-based station can cause listeners who tune in for the music to go elsewhere. […] 'Some people will say “your link has to be 45 seconds long” but I don't do that,' explains the programme controller of Trent FM, Dick Stone. 2002, Carole Fleming, The Radio Handbook, page 53

verb

1. (transitive) To connect two or more things.
   All the tribes and nations that composed it [the Roman Empire] were linked together, not only by the same laws and the same government, but by all the facilities of commodious intercourse, and of frequent communication. 1813,, A Tour Through Italy
2. (intransitive, of a Web page) To contain a hyperlink to another page.
   My homepage links to my wife's.
3. (transitive, Internet) To supply (somebody) with a hyperlink; to direct by means of a link.
   Haven't you seen his Web site? I'll link you to it.
4. (transitive, Internet) To post a hyperlink to.
   Stop linking those unfunny comics all the time!
5. (transitive) To demonstrate a correlation between two things.
6. (software compilation) To combine objects generated by a compiler into a single executable.
7. (transitive, slang) To meet with someone.
   I might link my ting from Barkin' 2017, Ramz, “Barking”

Etymology 2

Plausibly a modification of Medieval Latin linchinus (“candle”), an alteration of Latin lynchinus, itself from Ancient Greek λύχνος (lúkhnos, “lamp”).

noun

1. (obsolete) A torch, used to light dark streets.

Etymology 3

Unknown.

verb

1. (Scotland, intransitive) To skip or trip along smartly; to go quickly.
   On a sudden he was aware of a man linking along at his side. He cried a fine night, and the man replied. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide