slink

Etymology

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”). Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

verb

1. (intransitive) To sneak about furtively.
   The leaving us was just a feint; / Back here to London did he slink, / And now works on without a wink / Of sleep, and we are on the brink 1842, Robert Browning, Waring
   How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […]. 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
   Earnest slunk backstage. 2013 November, Glenn Thrush, “Locked in the Cabinet”, in POLITICO
   I have arrived to catch the 0830 TfW service to Crewe, worked by a tatty and unrefurbished 175114. As if ashamed of its appearance, it slinks into Platform 2 (instead of Platform 1, where it was expected). No announcement had been made, and we leave without any fanfare. December 2 2020, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67
2. (transitive, intransitive) To give birth to an animal prematurely.
   a cow that slinks her calf

noun

1. (countable) A furtive sneaking motion.
   His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious. 1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat, page 30
2. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
3. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.
   It is an ascertained fact that young or “slink” veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhœa, more especially when that disease is epidemic. 1868, Charles Alexander Cameron, The Stock-Feeder's Manual
4. (obsolete) A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
5. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.

adj

1. (Scotland) Thin; lean