Other forms: chinks
A chink is a narrow slit that light gets through. A chink in the curtains, a chink of light, a chink in the armour.
A chink in the armour means a weak point, and it is the commonest use. Be aware that the same spelling is a racial slur against Chinese people, entirely unrelated in origin, so the word is best avoided where that could be heard.
1nounchinkA narrow slit that light gets through.
“A chink of light came through the gap in the curtains.”
chink is a gap.
Of unknown origin, apparently an extension of Middle English chine, a crack or fissure, from Old English cinu.
Old English
ċine — a crack, chine, chink
Middle English
chine
English, today
chink
Of unknown origin, but apparently an extension, with diminutive -k (see more at -ock), of Middle English chine (or, if already suffixed in Middle English, chinek), from Old English ċine (“a crack, chine, chink”), equivalent to chine + k.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA