blink
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /blɪŋk/
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: blinks
form: blinking
form: blinked
form: blinked
Etymology: From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English *blincan (suggested by causative verb blenċan (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).
Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.
Senses: examples: text: The loser in the staring game is the person who blinks first.
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
examples: text: She blinked her tears away.
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
To close and reopen one's eyes to remove (something) from on or around the eyes.
examples: text: One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame.
ref: 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book II”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
examples: text: Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
examples: text: The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink.
ref: 1800, William Wordsworth, The Pet-Lamb:
text: The sun blinked fair on pool and stream.
ref: 1803, Walter Scott, Thomas the Rhymer:
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
examples: text: Now exile is over, I'll fly to the north,
The home of my childhood, the place of my birth;
O the transports of gladness that over me reign,
To blink upon canny Newcastle again!
ref: 1850, J. P. Robson, editor, Songs of the bards of the Tyne; or, A choice selection of original songs chiefly in the Newcastle dialect., page 485:
glosses: To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
To glance.
examples: text: The blinking text on the screen was distracting.
glosses: To flash on and off at regular intervals.
examples: text: An urban legend claims that gang members will attack anyone who blinks them.
glosses: To flash on and off at regular intervals.
To flash headlights on a car at.
examples: text: Don't come to the door until I blink twice.
glosses: To flash on and off at regular intervals.
To send a signal with a lighting device.
examples: text: All the waiters in your grand cafe / Leave their tables when you blink.
ref: 1980, Billy Joel, “Don't Ask Me Why”, in Glass Houses, Columbia Records:
glosses: To perform the smallest action that could solicit a response.
examples: text: The soldier shot the intruders without so much as blinking.
glosses: To have the slightest doubt, hesitation or remorse.
raw_tags: in negative constructions
examples: text: to blink the question
text: I have no wish to blink or extenuate the serious nature of the difficulty arising from this discrepancy of dates.
ref: 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 3, page 199:
glosses: To shut out of sight; to evade; to shirk.
glosses: To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
topics: literature
media
publishing
science-fiction
video-games
glosses: To teleport, mostly for short distances.
Synonyms: sense: close and open both eyes quickly
word: nictitate
Derived terms: before one can blink
blink-and-you-miss-it
blink first
blinkle
without blinking an eye
without blinking an eyelash
without blinking an eyelid