Etymology From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tinkelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tinkelen (“to tinkle”), German Low German tinkeln (“to flicker, glitter, sparkle”).
1
To make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.
The glasses tinkled together as they were placed on the table.
The sprightly horse / Moves to the music of his tinkling bells.1753, Robert Dodsley, Agriculture:
2 more examples
With a sound like tinkling bells, far off in a land of shepherds hidden by some hill, the waters of many fountains turned again home.1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 1:
Outside, the crickets and the tree-frogs started to zing and tinkle and the great hawkmoths came to the wire-netting across the windows and clutched it, gazing with trembling ecstasy at the two oil lamps that hung from the cross-beams inside.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Undertaker's Wind”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 186:
2
To cause to tinkle.
3
To indicate, signal, etc. by tinkling.
The butler tinkled dinner.
4
To hear, or resound with, a small, sharp sound.
And his ears tinkled, and the colour fled.1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Etymology From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tinkelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tinkelen (“to tinkle”), German Low German tinkeln (“to flicker, glitter, sparkle”).
1
A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.
The Man's Wife heard the tinkle-tinkle of little stones and loose earth falling off the roadway, and the sliding roar of the man and horse going down.1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 56:
She laughed, her voice a tinkle in the silence of the circular chamber.1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 97:
1 more example
At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. . . . There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus: