blink

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.

• IPA^(key): /blɪŋk/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

• Audio (Southern England):

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blink (third-person singular simple present blinks, present participle blinking, simple past and past participle blinked)

1. (intransitive) To close and reopen both eyes quickly.

   The loser in the staring game is the person who blinks first.

   1. (transitive) To close and reopen one's eyes to remove (something) from on or around the eyes.

      She blinked her tears away.

   2. To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
      • 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:

        One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame.

   3. To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
      • 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]:

        Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.

   4. To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
      • 1800, William Wordsworth, The Pet-Lamb:

        The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink.

      • 1803, Walter Scott, Thomas the Rhymer:

        The sun blinked fair on pool and stream.

   5. (Geordie, obsolete) To glance.
      • 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:

        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!

2. To flash on and off at regular intervals.

   The blinking text on the screen was distracting.

   1. To flash headlights on a car at.

      An urban legend claims that gang members will attack anyone who blinks them.

   2. To send a signal with a lighting device.

      Don't come to the door until I blink twice.

3. (hyperbolic) To perform the smallest action that could solicit a response.
   • 1980, Billy Joel, “Don't Ask Me Why”, in Glass Houses, Columbia Records:

     All the waiters in your grand cafe / Leave their tables when you blink.

4. (in negative constructions) To have the slightest doubt, hesitation or remorse.

   The soldier shot the intruders without so much as blinking.

5. (transitive) To shut out of sight; to evade; to shirk.

   to blink the question

   • 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 3, page 199:

     I have no wish to blink or extenuate the serious nature of the difficulty arising from this discrepancy of dates.

6. To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
7. (science fiction, video games) To teleport, mostly for short distances.

• (close and open both eyes quickly): nictitate

blink (countable and uncountable, plural blinks)

1. The act of quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.
2. (figuratively) The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
3. (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.

4. A glimpse or glance.
   • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

     This is the first blink that ever I had of him.

5. (UK, dialect) gleam; glimmer; sparkle
   • 1835, William Wordsworth, Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle:

     Not a blink of light was there.

   • 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC:

     this man vanished away […] as he had been a blink of the sun

6. (nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink
7. (sports, in the plural) Boughs cast where deer are to pass, in order to turn or check them.
8. (video games) An ability that allows teleporting, mostly for short distances

blink

1. imperative of blinke

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

blink

1. inflection of blinken:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

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blink

1. singular imperative of blinken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of blinken

From the verb blinke.

blink m (definite singular blinken, indefinite plural blinker, definite plural blinkene)

1. a target, bullseye

   treffe midt i blinken ― hit the bullseye

• skyteskive

• midt i blinken

blink n

1. flash, glimpse

• blinklys
• øyeblikk

• lynglimt

blink

1. imperative of blinke

• “blink” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From the verb blinke.

blink m (definite singular blinken, indefinite plural blinkar, definite plural blinkane)

1. a target, bullseye

• skyteskive

• augneblink

blink

1. imperative of blinka

• “blink” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

blink c

1. a blink, a flash

   Synonym: blinkning

   i ett blink

   in the blink of an eye / in a flash

blink n

1. flashing, blinking

   Synonym: blinkande

• blinka
• blinkers
• blinkning

• blink in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• blink in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• blink in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)