A toy in the form of a loose metal (originally) or plastic spring that can be made to "walk" down stairs as its coils separate and close up.
Used in a Sentence
slinky
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for slinky.
Editorial note
When the slinky is released, the bottom has nothing to hold it up anymore.
Examples14
Definitions4
Parts of speech2
Quick take
A toy in the form of a loose metal (originally) or plastic spring that can be made to "walk" down stairs as its coils separate and close up.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of slinky gathered in one view.
Of a garment: close-fitting; clingy.
Furtive, stealthy or catlike.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for slinky.
noun
A toy in the form of a loose metal (originally) or plastic spring that can be made to "walk" down stairs as its coils separate and close up.
adjective
Of a garment: close-fitting; clingy.
adjective
Furtive, stealthy or catlike.
adjective
(Northumbria, dated) Thin; lank; lean.
Example sentences
When the slinky is released, the bottom has nothing to hold it up anymore.
Even shorter: it's all about signal propagation and the slinky permits a really slow speed of it.
At one end he had a geared down variable-speed motor that pushed the slinky with a sine wave motion.
Red Hat since 5.0, Debian since either Slinky or Woody, SuSE since SuSE 5.0 or 6.
Please join me in straightening a Slinky in honor of a truly great actor and director.
Works fine on FF except the slinky, and all of it works on Chrome for me.
The information about a change (the drop) would take the same amount of time to reach the end of the slinky.
Plus, the % length contraction is a lot smaller for a broomstick than a slinky.
I viewed it as (correct me if I'm wrong): the bottom of the slinky is being pulled up by tension at the same rate that it's falling.
Does make me wonder if you couldn't build some type of inflatable slinky-duct though.
Each slinky expands and contracts roughly equally, but not at the same time.
I discovered the pew-pew slinky sound and many others by playing around with that little thing.
Quote examples
However (the key part), the affect is delayed by how the "signal" of the lost support can only travel at the (very low) speed of sound in the slinky.
Just yesterday there was posted to Hacker News an article about a slinky, and that article contains a good demonstration of the kind of simplifying assumptions we often make to reason about problems that are too complex to approach directly: "I decided to idealize the problem like this: the slinky is an ideal spring with mass distributed uniformly throughout.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use slinky in a sentence?
When the slinky is released, the bottom has nothing to hold it up anymore.
What does slinky mean?
A toy in the form of a loose metal (originally) or plastic spring that can be made to "walk" down stairs as its coils separate and close up.
What part of speech is slinky?
slinky is commonly used as noun, adjective.