"_Clunk_" (Vol. viii., p. 65.).--The Scotch, and English, _clunk_ must have
different meanings: for Jamieson defines the verb _to clunk_ "to emit a
hollow and interrupted sound, as that proceeding from any liquid confined
in a cask, when shaken, if the cask be not full;" and _to guggle_, as a
"straight-necked bottle, when it is emptying;" and yet I am inclined to
believe that the word also signifies _to swallow_, as in England. In the
humorous ballad of "Rise up and bar the door," _clunk_ seems to be used in
the sense of to swallow:
"And first they eat the while puddins, and then they eat the black;
The gudeman said within himsel, the Deil _clunk_ ower ai that."
That is, may you swallow the devil with the black puddings, they perhaps
being the best to the good man's taste. True, I have seen the word printed
"clink," instead of _clunk_ in this song; but erroneously I think, as there
is no signification of _clink_ in Jamieson that could be appropriately used
by the man who saw his favourite puddings devoured before his face. To
_clink_, means to "beat smartly", to "rivet the point of a nail," to
"propagate scandal, or any rumour quickly;" none of which significations
could be substituted for _clunk_ in the ballad.