blink

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle Dutch blinken. Related to blank.

Pronunciation [edit]

Verb [edit]

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. To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
    The loser in the staring game is the person who blinks first.
  2. To flash headlights on a car.
    An urban legend claims that gang members will attack anyone who blinks them.
  3. To send a signal with a lighting device.
    Don't come to the door until I blink twice.
  4. To flash on and off at regular intervals.
    The blinking text on the screen was distracting.
  5. (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.

Translations [edit]

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 Help:How to check translations.

Noun [edit]

blink (plural blinks)

  1. The act of very 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.
    • Bishop Hall
      This is the first blink that ever I had of him.
  5. (UK, dialect) 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?)
  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.

Translations [edit]

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 Help:How to check translations.

Related terms [edit]


Danish [edit]

Verb [edit]

blink

  1. imperative of blinke

Dutch [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Verb [edit]

blink

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

Norwegian [edit]

Noun [edit]

blink m

  1. lightning

See also [edit]