link

Noun

link (plural links)

1. A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.

   The mayor’s assistant serves as the link to the media.

   • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC:

     The link of brotherhood, by which / One common Maker bound me to the kind.

   • 1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres:

     And so by double lynkes enchaynde themselues in louers life

2. One element of a chain or other connected series.

   The third link of the silver chain needs to be resoldered.

   The weakest link.

3. Abbreviation of hyperlink.

   The link on the page points to the sports scores.

4. (computing) The connection between buses or systems.

   A by-N-link is composed of N lanes.

5. (mathematics) A space comprising one or more disjoint knots.
6. (Sussex) a thin wild bank of land splitting two cultivated patches and often linking two hills.
   • 2008, Richard John King, A Handbook for Travellers in Kent and Sussex:

     They used formerly to live in caves or huts dug into the side of a bank or "link," and lined with heath or straw.

7. (figurative) an individual person or element in a system
   • 2010, James O. Young, My Sheep Know My Voice: anointed poetry, AuthorHouse, page 32:

     But know that God is the strongest link.

   • 2010, William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, Universal Principles of Design, RockPort, page 262:

     The fuse is the weakest link in the system. As such, the fuse is also the most valuable link in the system.

   • 2010, Stephen Fairweather, The Missing Book of Genesis, AuthorHouse, page 219:

     “ […] This is so that nobody can change the way every link must talk about the formula that I taught to make a real Chain of Universal Love and not a Chain of Love of a group or sect.”

8. Anything doubled and closed like a link of a chain.
   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

     a link of horsehair

9. A sausage that is not a patty.
10. (kinematics) Any one of the several elementary pieces of a mechanism, such as the fixed frame, or a rod, wheel, mass of confined liquid, etc., by which relative motion of other parts is produced and constrained.
11. (engineering) Any intermediate rod or piece for transmitting force or motion, especially a short connecting rod with a bearing at each end; specifically (in steam engines) the slotted bar, or connecting piece, to the opposite ends of which the eccentric rods are jointed, and by means of which the movement of the valve is varied, in a link motion.
12. (surveying) The length of one joint of Gunter's chain, being the hundredth part of it, or 7.92 inches, the chain being 66 feet in length.
13. (chemistry) A bond of affinity, or a unit of valence between atoms; applied to a unit of chemical force or attraction.
14. (in the plural) The windings of a river; the land along a winding stream.
    • 1822, Allan Cunningham, “The King of the Peak”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 1, page 222:

      'Dame Foljambe,' said the old man, 'the march of thy tale is like the course of the Wye, seventeen miles of links and windings down a fair valley five miles long. […] '

15. (broadcasting) An introductory cue.
    • 2002, Carole Fleming, The Radio Handbook, page 53:

      Too much talk on a music-based station can cause listeners who tune in for the music to go elsewhere. […] 'Some people will say “your link has to be 45 seconds long” but I don't do that,' explains the programme controller of Trent FM, Dick Stone.

Verb

link (third-person singular simple present links, present participle linking, simple past and past participle linked)

1. (transitive) To connect (two or more things).
   • 1813, John Chetwode Eustace, A Tour Through Italy:

     All the tribes and nations that composed it [the Roman Empire] were linked together, not only by the same laws and the same government, but by all the facilities of commodious intercourse, and of frequent communication.

2. (intransitive, Internet, of a web page) To contain a hyperlink to another page.

   My homepage links to my wife's.

3. (transitive, Internet) To supply (someone) with a hyperlink; to direct by means of a link.

   Haven't you seen his website? I'll link you to it.

4. (transitive, Internet) To post a hyperlink to.

   Stop linking those unfunny comics all the time!

5. (transitive) To demonstrate a correlation between (two things).
6. (software compilation) To combine objects generated by a compiler into a single executable.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

7. (transitive, slang) To meet with (someone).
   • 2016 February 14, Joseph Adenuga, Darren Dixon, Tariq Devega, “Ladies Hit Squad” (track 6), in Konnichiwa, performed by Skepta ft. D Double E and ASAP Nast, Boy Better Know:

     Linked us, now she don't wanna link them man again / Your ex plays in the Prem but you never see him taking a pen

   • 2017, Ramz, “Barking”‎:

     I might link my ting from Barkin'

   • 2019, “Same Old Story” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta:

     Same old questions, what's your body count?
     Who were you linkin' before me?

Noun

link (plural links)

1. (obsolete) A torch, used to light dark streets.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:

     You were coming out of the Italian Opera, ma’am, in white satin and jewels, a blaze of splendour, when I hadn’t a penny to buy a link to light you.’

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     Give me a loan of the link, Dick.

Verb

link (third-person singular simple present links, present participle linking, simple past and past participle linked)

1. (Scotland, intransitive) To skip or trip along smartly; to go quickly.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     On a sudden he was aware of a man linking along at his side. He cried a fine night, and the man replied.

Declension

Inflection

Synonyms

• hyperlink

Adjective

link (comparative linker, superlative linkst)

1. dangerous
2. (criminal slang) sly, cunning
3. (slang) jolly, nice
4. Obsolete form of links, linker (“left, not right”).

Noun

link m (plural links, diminutive linkje n)

1. physical connection, as in a hardware cable
2. (figuratively) logical connection, as in reasoning about causality
3. hyperlink

Declension