minkn.1adj.
/mɪŋk/, U.S. /mɪŋk/ A. n.1† 1. A skin or pelt of a mink (sense A. 2). Usually in plural. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > skin or hide > skin with hair attached or fur > [noun] > of mink
mink1431
kolinsky1851
ranch mink1934
Silverblu1941
tourmaline1957
sapphire mink1960
1431 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1855) II. 34 (MED) Lego..unam togam..penulatam cum mynkes et unam felle brasii coloris.
1450 in A. Clark Lincoln Diocese Documents (1914) 43 Item, to the womman that is next me at my departing C s...and j. gowne furred with Mynkys.
1466 in Manners & Househ. Expenses Eng. (1841) 371 My mastyr bout of the skynner of Bury xx mynkes.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 245/2 Mynkes a furre, minques.
1545 in G. J. Piccope Lancs. & Cheshire Wills (1860) II. 63 My gowne faced withe mynkys and welted withe tawnye velvet.
1707 J. Chamberlayne Angliæ Notitia (ed. 22) iii. ii. 256 Of Furrs, Filches,..Mincks, Sables, 40 Skins is a Timber.
2. Either of two small, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals resembling stoats, Mustela vison (family Mustelidae), native to North America and widely farmed for its dark brown fur, and the smaller M. lutreola, found in Europe.As a result of fur farming the American mink has become naturalized in many parts of Europe.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Mustelidae (weasel, marten, otter, or badger) > [noun] > genus Mustela (weasel) > mustela vison (mink)
mink1612
vison1780
Silverblu1941
mutation mink1942
Aleutian1946
sapphire1951
sapphire mink1960
1612 J. Smith Map of Virginia 14 Martins, Powlecats, weesels, and Minkes we know they haue, because we haue seen many of their skinnes.
1683 W. Penn Let. 16 Aug. (1881) 4 The Wild Cat, Panther,..Fisher, Mink, Musk-Rat.
1771 J. R. Forster tr. P. Kalm Trav. N. Amer. II. 61 The English and the Swedes gave the name of Mink to an animal of this country.
1784 T. Pennant Arctic Zool. I. i. 87 Minx Otter.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 188 Its skin is blacker than that of an Otter..; ‘as black as a Mink’ being a proverbial expression in America.
1834 H. McMurtrie tr. G. Cuvier Animal Kingdom (abridged ed.) 62 M. lutreola, Pall. (The Mink or Norek.) It frequents the banks of rivers, &c., in the north and east of Europe... It is the Mink of the United States.
1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 253/2 Minx, a name for the Vison-weasel.
1883 Official Catal. Internat. Fisheries Exhib. (ed. 4) 160 Specimens of Otters, Fishers, Minks, Musk-rats, Weasels, Seals.
1914 W. T. Hornaday Wild Life Conservation iv. 146 In farming communities, the Mink, Weasel, Skunk, Raccoon, and even the Opossum all become so destructive to poultry as to constitute pests.
1965 D. Morris Mammals 282 American Mink are farmed extensively for their lustrous, rich-brown pelts, and these animals have been deliberately introduced into other parts of the world.
1992 BBC Wildlife Jan. 49/1 Minks also eat muskrat carrion.
3.
a. The thick glossy dark brown fur of the mink, esp. as used to make coats or as a trimming for other garments.Often with connotation of luxury: cf. sense B. 2.
Π
1870 Appletons' Jrnl. 24 Dec. 752/2 There are..lower grades of the Russian sables and the Hudson's Bay sables, and the best grades of mink.
1883 Harper's Mag. Dec. 90/1 The bewitching little muff trimmed with mink.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XI. 355/2 Marmot, dyed... Sold as mink or sable.
1930 R. W. Service Coll. Verse 269 Fur had they, white fox, marten, mink, to trade.
1960 L. R. Banks L-shaped Room viii. 120 She came at last, swathed in mink, ushered in by the perspiring PRO.
b. A garment made of mink.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [noun] > made from specific material > fur > article of > types of
fur1637
mink1932
1932 N.Y. Herald Tribune 18 Mar. 11/2 Papa's balance quickly sinks, When he buys two Eastern minks.
1951 F. Loesser Take back your Mink (song) 2 I said as I ran down the hall..Take back your mink... What made you think..that I was one of those girls.
1957 M. McCarthy Memories Catholic Girlhood viii. 197 In the winter, she would have on her mink or her Persian or her squirrel or her broadtail.
1969 S. Ellin in Ellery Queen's Grand Slam (1971) 19 Two cars, a new mink whenever you feel like it.
1988 ‘Ultra Violet’ Famous for 15 Minutes xv. 141 The two women with them are..clutching their minks although it is much too late in the season for furs.
c. A dark brown colour like that of a mink's fur.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > brown or brownness > [noun] > other browns
umberc1568
Spanish brown1660
earth colour1688
raw umber1702
iron brown1714
clove-brown1794
raw sienna1797
wood-brown1805
moorit1809
coffee1815
oak1815
burnt almond1850
Vandyke brown1850
Turk's head1853
catechu brown1860
oak brown1860
mummy brown1861
walnut-brown1865
Havana1873
havana brown1875
wax-brown1887
box1889
nutria1897
caramel1909
wallflower brown1913
cigar1923
desert-brown1923
sunburn1923
tobacco1923
maple1926
butterscotch1927
walnut1934
snuff1951
mink1955
toffee1960
sludge1962
earth-tone1973
1955 Punch 16 Mar. 349/2 Colours are black, white, mink, and blue.
1971 Vogue 15 Sept. 31 (advt.) This exciting trouser suit..[is] available in Mink/Black and Mulberry/Dark Navy.
1996 André de Brett Catal. Autumn–Winter 103/1 Colours: caramel, mink, honey.
4. U.S. slang. An attractive or sexually provocative woman; a girlfriend. Also in extended use. Cf. fox n. 2c, minx n. 2.
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the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [noun] > attractive person > woman
morsela1450
honeypot1618
enchantera1704
peach1710
enchantress1713
sparkler1713
enslaver1728
witch1740
fascinatress1799
honey1843
biscuit1855
fairy1862
baby1863
scorcher1881
cracker1891
peacherino1896
hot tamale1897
mink1899
hotty?1913
babe1915
a bit of skirt1916
cookie1917
tomato1918
snuggle-pup1922
nifty1923
brahma1925
package1931
ginch1934
blonde bombshell1942
beast1946
smasher1948
a bit of crackling1949
nymphet1955
nymphette1961
fox1963
beaver1968
superbabe1970
brick house1977
nubile1977
yummy mummy1993
1899 B. W. Green Word-bk. Virginia Folk-speech 283 Mink, minx; a pert girl; a huzzy.
1967 F. Riessman & J. Dawkins Play it Cool 68 Mink, girl friend: A sailor's got a mink in every port.
1973 ‘J. Godey’ Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 176 This was a real mink, this girl, all you had to do was throw a dirty thought at her and she was down on her back.
1991 A. Thorne Bloomsbury Dict. Contemp. Slang 258/1 We gotta get us some mink.
1992 J. Mowry Way past Cool 33 Deek had..minks that would never have looked twice at Ty.
5. Originally and chiefly South African colloquial mink and manure adj. designating or relating to the inhabitants of the wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg, typically noted for their expensive clothes, love of horse riding, etc.; (hence) moneyed, rich.
ΚΠ
1981 Signature (S. Afr.) May 9 Often I am asked how Cape Town—so far from the mink and manure belt—draws the cream of South African riding talent to the..International Show.
1985 Frontline (Johannesburg) Sept. 23 Our car eventually hits the clean smelling mink and manure black area called Diepkloof Extension. It is like another world.
1992 S. Sherry in South (Cape Town) 27 Feb. The Club is definitely not a mink-and-manure gathering place.
2000 Edmonton Sun (Nexis) 24 Sept. c19 Many, including Lamaze's colleagues in the mink and manure set are tut-tutting.
B. adj. (attributive).
1. Of a coat or other garment: made of mink.
Π
1859 Harper's Mag. Apr. 639/1 To think of that school-girl, Kitty Bidwell, having a mink cape!
1862 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 8 Mar. 115/2 A young creature with mink collar and a Zouave jacket.
1928 A. Christie Myst. of Blue Train x. 71 Perfectly dressed in a long mink coat and a little hat of Chinese lacquer red.
1952 E. Ferber Giant ii. 14 I'm only going to buy a little white mink cape throw.
1967 Boston Sunday Herald 7 May iii. 3/3 (advt.) The recent weakness in prices in the fur market enabled us to hand pick choice lush let out natural Mink Jackets.
1975 M. Duke Death of Holy Murderer 7 An inside pocket of her mink coat.
1991 F. King Ant Colony (1992) xxiii. 209 She..tweaked the mink stole off the chair; then threw it across her shoulders.
2. figurative. Opulent, sumptuous, wealthy.
Π
1960 Spectator 4 Nov. 681 A mink-stoled Republican residential suburb of Chicago.]
1965 Economist 14 Aug. 611/2 Riding..from one Negro housing development to another, from a ‘mink ghetto’, a middle-class Negro neighbourhood, to a bleak..slum.
1966 Radio Times 22 Sept. 22/1 Kenton gives the mink touch to half-price electric heating.
Compounds
C1. General attributive and objective.
a.
mink farm n.
Π
1939 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 8 109/1 The building project at Reserve Mines, the mink farm at Tarbou..and the credit unions scattered here and there throughout the provinces.
1967 Guardian 26 Aug. 3/6 There is a mink farm near by, and..householders have been protesting..about the smell.
mink farmer n.
Π
1961 A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo i. 53 A drunken failed mink farmer from Essex.
1998 N.Y. Times 15 Oct. a12/2 Mr Kelsell is the second British mink farmer in the last month, and the third this year, to be struck by animal liberationists.
mink farming n.
Π
1916 Yukon Territory (Canada Dept. Interior) 188 The following practical hints on mink farming have been recently published.
2000 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 18 Oct. 17 A fur farmer claims new Human Rights legislation could help his fight for Government compensation over a ban on mink farming.
mink head n.
Π
1902 Daily News 18 Dec. 4/2 The mink throat has pretty white markings, whilst the mink head is plain brown.
mink hunting n.
Π
1984 Guardian Weekly 19 Aug. 21/5 With the otter now legally protected, they have taken to hunting another waterside animal, the mink... So why can't mink hunting also be made illegal?
1998 Parl. Deb. Commons: Rep. Standing Comm. C: Wild Mammals (Hunting With Dogs) Bill, 4th Sitting 28 Jan. 125 I intend to talk about mink hunting and the possibility of using dogs for that purpose.
mink oil n.
Π
1965 Harper's Bazaar June 46 To take care of cuticles, some extravagant materials are used—the latest being mink oil.
1997 J. Seabrook Deeper vii. 241 Like the mink oil I was forever massaging into my leather books, to soften them.
mink ranch n.
Π
1948 A. L. Rand Mammals E. Rockies 92 In Alberta the number of mink ranches has increased steadily from 35 in 1929 to 773 in 1943.
1986 R. Ford Sportswriter iii. 74 Some boys and I are starting up a mink ranch.
mink ranching n.
Π
1916 Yukon Territory (Canada Dept. Interior) 188 Mink ranching will become an important industry.
mink skin n.
Π
1672 Court Proc. 1 Oct. in E. Merritt Arch. Maryland (1952) LXV. 40 Eleaven Mink skynns.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 188 Mink Skins.
1864 Sci. Amer. 5 Nov. 292/2 A great quantity of mink skins are sold to the inexperienced as real Russian sables.
1999 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 4 Nov. e2 Female mink skins are preferred—they are short and silky.
mink tail n.
Π
1892 Daily News 15 Oct. 7/2 Mink tail is much used by those who cannot afford sable.
mink throat n.
Π
1902 Daily News 18 Dec. 4/2 The mink throat has pretty white markings, whilst the mink head is plain brown.
b.
mink brown adj. and n.
Π
1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 July b1 Her mink brown eyes deepened with a whisper of violet shadow.
1991 Hair's How No. 34. 819/3 Foundation shades you should go for are:..sepia, caramel, mink brown.
2000 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 28 June z1 She then set it against walls painted soft mink brown.
mink-lined adj.
Π
1952 M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke xix. 257 Meg, who looked young and forlorn despite the sophisticated swagger of her mink-lined cheviot.
1997 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 8 May 7 Barbarella is a carefree figure who travels the universe in a mink-lined spaceship.
C2.
mink frog n. a small mottled or spotted frog, Rana septentrionalis, of marshy lakes and ponds of north-eastern North America, which when handled exudes an odour resembling that of a mink.
Π
1883 Amer. Naturalist 17 945 The mink or Hoosier frog..Rana septentrionalis... If taken in the hand it emits..the disagreeable scent of the mink.
1949 A. H. Wright & A. A. Wright Handbk. Frogs & Toads U.S. & Canada (ed. 3) 536 We heard at night along the shore of Otter Lake the peculiar note which is the croak of the mink frog.
1994 Country Connection (Boulter, Ont.) Summer 16/2 In a real bog, wood and mink frogs are the only amphibians that can reproduce.
minkhound n. a dog, esp. a foxhound or otterhound, used for hunting mink.
Π
1982 Times 27 Apr. 3/6 Masters of foxhounds, deerhounds, minkhounds, packs of beagles and basset hounds.
2000 Country Illustr. Apr. 42/2 Three couple foxhounds,..one couple Kerry beagles, a bloodhound and a single deep-voiced basset form the nucleus of the minkhound pack.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
minkn.2
/mɪŋk/, U.S. /mɪŋk/, Scottish English /mɪŋk/, /mʌŋk/ Scottish.
1. A length of rope or other material formed or tied into a loop. spec.
a. A tether used to secure a cow in a byre; a halter, bridle, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > general equipment > [noun] > tether > ring or loop
terret1724
head-ring1795
head terret1795
mink1801
1801 W. Beattie Fruits Time Parings 34 An' plaits a theet, or mends a mink.
1864 W. D. Latto Tammas Bodkin ii. 10 Her natural instinct wad probably hae led her to her ain stable..but..he wad haud on ruggin' an' rivin' at the munks.
1964 Scots Mag. Feb. 413 ‘Wull Ah tak' the monk aff noo?’.. He removed from the beast's head the rope with which he had been helping to keep her steady.
b. A noose placed around a person's neck; esp. a hangman's noose.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > hanging > [noun] > gallows > parts of > noose or rope
ropeeOE
withec1275
cordc1330
snarea1425
tippet1447
girnc1480
halter1481
widdie1508
tether?a1513
hemp1532
Tyburn tippet1549
John Roper's window1552
neckweed1562
noose1567
horse-nightcap1593
tow1596
Tyburn tiffany1612
piccadill1615
snick-up1620
Tyburn piccadill1620
necklacea1625
squinsy1632
Welsh parsley1637
St. Johnston's riband1638
string1639
Bridport daggera1661
rope's end1663
cravat1680
swing1697
snecket1788
death cord1804
neckclothc1816
St. Johnston's tippet1816
death rope1824
mink1826
squeezer1836
yard-rope1850
necktie1866
Tyburn string1882
Stolypin's necktie1909
widdieneckc1920
1826 D. Anderson Poems in Sc. Dial. 10 They..forged ale sellers licences for drink, For which their heads should been put i'the mink.
1889 Sc. Notes & Queries 2 141 The affectionate spouse would accompany her husband and lord to the gibbet, and urge him to put his ‘heid into the mink an' nae anger the guid laird’.
1957 Mearns Leader 24 May 8/1 He wis mairched oot tae the road, a rope wi' a mink—or noose as some ca't—wis pitten roun' his neck, an' in this wye he wis paradit ben the hale veelage.
2. figurative. A trap, snare, or difficulty; esp. (humorous or ironic) the state of matrimony.In quot. 1928: a state of enthralment.
ΚΠ
1875 W. Alexander Sketches Life among Ain Folk 135 A bodie's as wise to keep their heid oot o' the mink as lang's they can.
1875 W. Robbie Mains of Yonderton xii, in Weekly Free Press (Aberdeen) 11 Dec. 2/2 If she gets the vera least encouragement, she comes that fest ben on a body 'at sometimes a man hardly kens fat he's aboot till his neck be in o' the mink.
1909 J. Tennant Jeannie Jaffray 231 He's nae likely to rin his heid into the mink again.
1928 J. G. Horne Lan'wart Loon 26 When wash't an' happit in his bink, An' haudin Jocky in a mink.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1adj.1431
n.21801