blink
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.
PronunciationEdit
- Rhymes: -ɪŋk
VerbEdit
blink (third-person singular simple present blinks, present participle blinking, simple past and past participle blinked)
- (intransitive) To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
- The loser in the staring game is the person who blinks first.
- (transitive) To close and reopen one's eyes to remove (something) from on or around the eyes.
- She blinked her tears away.
- To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
- Alexander Pope
- One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame.
- Alexander Pope
- To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
- Shakespeare
- Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
- Shakespeare
- To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
- Wordsworth
- The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink.
- Sir Walter Scott
- The sun blinked fair on pool and stream.
- Wordsworth
- To flash on and off at regular intervals.
- The blinking text on the screen was distracting.
- To flash headlights on a car at.
- An urban legend claims that gang members will attack anyone who blinks them.
- To send a signal with a lighting device.
- Don't come to the door until I blink twice.
- (hyperbolic) To perform the smallest action that could solicit a response.
- 1980, Billy Joel, “Don't Ask Me Why”, Glass Houses, Columbia Records
- All the waiters in your grand cafe / Leave their tables when you blink.
- 1980, Billy Joel, “Don't Ask Me Why”, Glass Houses, Columbia Records
- To shut out of sight; to evade; to shirk.
- to blink the question
- (Scotland) To trick; to deceive.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)
- To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
- (video games) To teleport, mostly for short distances
SynonymsEdit
- (close and open both eyes quickly): nictitate
TranslationsEdit
to close and reopen both eyes quickly
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to flash headlights
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to send a signal with a lighting device
to flash on and off at regular intervals
hyperbole: to perform the smallest action
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
NounEdit
blink (plural blinks)
- The act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.
- (figuratively) The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
- (computing) A text formatting feature that causes text to disappear and reappear as a form of visual emphasis.
- 2007, Cheryl D. Wise, Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web: The Basics and Beyond (page 150)
- I can think of no good reason to use blink because blinking text and images are annoying, they mark the creator as an amateur, and they have poor browser support.
- 2007, Cheryl D. Wise, Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web: The Basics and Beyond (page 150)
- A glimpse or glance.
- Bishop Hall
- This is the first blink that ever I had of him.
- Bishop Hall
- (Britain, dialectal) gleam; glimmer; sparkle
- Wordsworth
- Not a blink of light was there.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)
- Wordsworth
- (nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink
- (sports, in the plural) Boughs cast where deer are to pass, in order to turn or check them.
- (video games) An ability that allows teleporting, mostly for short distances
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
a quick view
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a view with eyes partly closed
The act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again
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The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
DanishEdit
DutchEdit
GermanEdit
VerbEdit
blink
- Imperative singular of blinken.
- (colloquial) First-person singular present of blinken.
Norwegian BokmålEdit
EtymologyEdit
From the verb blinke
NounEdit
blink m (definite singular blinken, indefinite plural blinker, definite plural blinkene)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
NounEdit
blink n
Derived termsEdit
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
blink
- imperative of blinke
ReferencesEdit
- “blink” in The Bokmål Dictionary.