clinker1
/ˈklɪŋkə
/noun [mass noun]
1The stony residue from burnt coal or from a furnace.The expected decrease of duty on cement and clinker from Rs 400 per tonne to Rs 350 per tonne didn't happen....
- At its peak the mix reaches 1, 450C before exiting as a hard, gritty material called clinker.
- To the extent possible, the concrete mixture should incorporate Portland cement of one type, made with clinker from a single source, and manufactured at the same plant.
1.1 (also clinker brick) [count noun] A brick with a vitrified surface: [as modifier]: clinker-brick walls...
- Beneath the city's dense urban forest, low walls of Arroyo Seco stone and clinker brick front brown-shingled homes with porches set under graceful overhangs.
- It will take about 1500 whole bricks, clinkers.
- Remaindered brick packs - rough clinkers, chocolate browns, flash fired silvers - were placed randomly along the south elevation, to be laid as required.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from obsolete Dutch klinckaerd (earlier form of klinker), from klinken 'to clink'.
Rhymes
clinker2
/ˈklɪŋkə/noun informal
1North American Something that is unsatisfactory, of poor quality, or a failure: marketing couldn’t save such clinkers as these films...
- I was in the movie business, did some good movies, did a couple of clinkers.
- So, updates will come a little quicker now, this was the clinker.
- Luckily, the duo doesn't settle on such clinkers.
1.1A wrong musical note: a string breaks, you hit a clinker, you forget where you are in a piece...
- Suddenly, I hit an obvious clinker with my right hand - a wrong note that had never happened before and that sounded pretty stupid.
- After so many hits, the law of averages demanded a clinker from the Kennedy Center's Sondheim Celebration, and got it with A Little Night Music.
- It seemed to me that she wasn't traumatized at the end with the clinker.
2British dated Something or someone excellent or outstanding: she was a real clinker
Origin
Late 17th century (denoting a person or thing that clinks): from clink1 + -er1. (sense 2) dates from the mid 19th century, (sense 1) from the 1930s.