slink

verb

1. (intransitive)To sneak about furtively.

   “As we do turn our backs From our companion thrown into his grave, So his familiars to his buried fortunes Slink all away, leave their false vows with him, Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self, A dedicated beggar to the air, With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone.”

   “Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.”

   “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”

   “Joseph Poorgrass, in the background, twitched, and his lips became dry with fear of some terrible consequences as he saw Bathsheba summarily speaking, and Henery slinking off to a corner.”

   “Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none.”

2. (ambitransitive)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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
3. (countable, uncountable)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.”

4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
5. (Scotland, UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable)A thievish fellow; a sneak.

adj

1. (Scotland)Thin; lean