244 
S I N 
from the Galli Senones; 17 miles south-east of Pesaro. Lat. 
43. 43. 16. N. long. 13. 11. 45. E. 
SIN-ING, a town of Corea; 25 miles east-south-east of 
Long-Kouang. 
SIN-ING, a town of Corea; 8 miles north-east of Sing- 
tcheou. 
SINING, a city of China, of the second rank, in Chan-si. 
It is one of the fortified places constructed for the defence of 
the great wall. Lat. 36. 40. N. long, 101. 24. E. 
SINISTER, adj. [sinister, Latin.] Being on the left 
hand; left; not right; not dexter. It seems to be used with 
the accent on the second syllable, at least in the primitive, 
and on the first in the figurative sense. 
My mother’s blood 
Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister 
Bounds in my sire’s. Shakspeare- 
Bad; perverse; corrupt; deviating from honesty; unfair. 
—The Duke of Clarence was soon after by sinister means 
made clean away. Spenser. — [sinistre, Fr.] Unlucky; in¬ 
auspicious. The accent is here on the second syllable. 
Tempt it again ; that is thy act, or none: 
What all the several ills that visit earth. 
Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth, 
Plagues, famine, fire, could not reach unto, 
The sword, nor surfeits, let thy fury do. B. Jonson. 
SPNISTER-HANDED, adj. Left-handed ; unlucky. 
That which still makes her mirth to flow, 
Is our sinister-handed woe. Lovelace. 
SI'NISTERLY, adv. Perversely; corruptly; unfairly. 
—Persons which most sinister lye and maliciouslye labour. 
Injunctions of 2. Eliz. 
SINISTRI, a sect of ancient heretics, thus called, because 
they held the left hand in abhorrence. 
SI'NISTROUS, adj. [sinister, Lat.] Absurd ; perverse; 
wrong-headed: in French gauche .-—Many, who are 
sinistrous unto good actions, are ambidexterous unto bad. 
Brown. 
SI'NISTROUSLY, adv. With a tendency to the left.— 
Many in their infancy are sinistrously disposed, and divers 
continue all their life left-handed, and have but weak and im¬ 
perfect use of the right. Brown. —-Perversely; absurdly.— 
Fall not—to accuse, calumniate, backbite, or sinistrously 
interpret others. Brown. 
SINJAR, a range of lofty mountains, situated in Diar- 
bekir, in Asiatic Turkey, on which stood the ancient fortress 
of Sangara, surrendered to the Persians by the pusillanimous 
successor of Julian. They are occupied and infested by a 
tribe called Yezedi, the mortal enemies of the Turks, and 
who have been completely subdued by them. They abound 
in pasturage, and yield grain sufficient for the use of the rude 
inhabitants. These mountains occur in the route between 
Mosul and Merdin. 
To SINK, v. n. pret. I sunk, anciently sank ; part, sunk 
or sunken, [pencan, pnean, Saxon ; sinken, German; 
sigean, M. Goth, from sign, to subside, to fall down. 
Junius, and Serenius.] To fall down through any medium; 
not to swim ; to go to the bottom. 
In with the river sunk, and with it rose, 
Satan, involv’d in rising mist; then sought 
Where to lie hid. Milton. 
To fall gradually.—The arrow went out at his heart, and 
he sunk down in his chariot. 2 Kings .—To enter or 
penetrate into any body.—David took a stone and slang it, 
and smote the Philistine, that the stone sunk into his fore¬ 
head. 1 Sam.— -To lose height; to fall to a level. 
In vain has nature form’d 
Mountains and oceans to oppose his passage; 
He bounds o’er all, victorious in his march ; 
The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him. Addison. 
To lose or want prominence.—-What were his marks?— 
A lean cheek, a blue eye and sunken, Skakspeare. —To 
be overwhelmed or depressed. 
S I N 
Our country sinks beneath the yoke; 
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash 
Is added to her wounds. Shakspeare , 
To be received; to be impressed.—Let these sayings sink 
down into your ears. St. Luke. —-Truth never sinks into 
these men’s minds, nor gives any tincture to them. Locke. 
—To decline; to decrease; to decay. 
Then down the precipice of time it goes, 
And sinks in minutes which iu ages rose. Dry den. 
To fall into any state worse then the former; to tend to 
ruin. 
Nor urg’d the labours of my lord in vain, 
A sinking empire longer to sustain. Dryden. 
To SINK, v. a. To put under water; to disable from 
swimming or floating.—-A small fleet of English made an 
hostile invasion, or incursion, upon their havens and roads, 
and fired, sunk, and carried away ten thousand ton of their 
great shipping. Bacon. —To delve; to make by delving. 
—At Saga in Germany they dig up iron in the fields by sink¬ 
ing ditches two feet deep, and in the space of ten years the 
ditches are digged again for iron since produced. Boyle. 
—-To depress; to degrade.—Trifling painters or sculptors 
bestow infinite pains upon the most insignificant parts of a 
figure, ’till they sink the grandeur of the whole. Pope .— 
To plunge into destruction. 
Heaven bear witness, 
And if I have a conscience, let it sink me, 
Ev’n as the axe falls, if I be not faithful. Shakspeare. 
To make to fall-—These are so far from raising mountains, 
that they overturn and fling down some before standing, 
and undermine others, sinking them into the abyss. Wood¬ 
ward.- —To bring low; to diminish in quantity. 
When on the banks of an unlook’d-for stream. 
You sunk the river with repeated draughts. 
Who was the last in all your host that thirsted ? Addison. 
To crush; to overbear; to depress.—That Hector was 
in certainty of death, and depressed with the conscience of 
an ill cause: if you will not grant the first of these will 
sink the spirit of a hero, you’ll at least allow the second 
may. Pope. —To diminish; to degrade.—They catch at 
all opportunities of ruining our trade, and sinking the figure 
which we make. Addison.— To make to decline. To 
suppress • to conceal; to intervert.-—If sent with ready 
money to buy any thing, and you happen to be out of 
pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on account. 
Swift. 
SINK, s. [pne, Saxon, a heap, a collection, which 
■%l$erenius conjectures to be derived from the Su. Goth. 
sank a, to collect. Our word is rather perhaps from paean. 
Sax., sinken, Germ, to go to the bottom.] A drain; any 
place where corruption is gathered. 
Should by the cormorant belly be restrain’d, 
Who is the sink o’ the body. Shakspeare. 
Gather more filth than any sink in town. Granville. 
Our soul, whose country’s heav’n, and God her father. 
Into this world, corruption’s sink, is sent. Donne. 
SINKEL, a town of Sumatra, situated on a river of the 
same name. This town stands on the west coast, about 40 
miles from the sea, and the natives carry on a good deal of 
trade in benjamin, camphor, bees’ wax, and gold dust, which 
are frequently adulterated. Their business is not transacted 
at the town, but at a small woody island called South Leaga. 
They have the character of being treacherous. Lat. 2.35. N. 
long. 98. 2. E. 
SIN KEL, a river of Sumatra, the largest on the western 
coast, which rises in the mountains of Dalholi, in the terri¬ 
tory of Achin, and, after a long course, empties itself into 
the sea, by a mouth three quarters of a mile wide. It over* 
flows a considerable portion of the low country during the 
rains, but there is a bar at the mouth, with shallow water. 
SINKING 
