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

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

Example of a blinking human eye (slow-motion)

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; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book II”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254:

        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 606515358, [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. (Tyneside, 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”, Glass Houses, Columbia Records

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

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

   to blink the question

5. To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
6. (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 54134621:

     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 270129616:

     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. first-person singular present indicative of blinken
2. imperative of blinken

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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.