blin

See also: Blin

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪn

Etymology 1

From Middle English blinnen, from Old English blinnan (“to stop, cease”), from Proto-Germanic *bilinnaną (“to turn aside, swerve from”), from Proto-Indo-European *ley-, *leya- (“to deflect, turn away, vanish, slip”), equivalent to be- +‎ lin. Cognate with Old High German bilinnan (“to yield, stop, forlet, give away”), Old Norse linna (Swedish dialectal linna, “to pause, rest”).

Verb

blin (third-person singular simple present blins, present participle blinning, simple past blinned or blan, past participle blinned or blun)

1. (obsolete) To cease from.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     nathemore for that spectacle bad, / Did th'other two their cruell vengeaunce blin [...].

2. (archaic or dialectal) To stop, desist; to cease to move, run, flow, etc., let up.
   • 1880, Margaret Ann Courtney, English Dialect Society, Glossary of words in use in Cornwall:

     A child may cry for half an hour, and never blin ; it may rain all day, and never blin ; the train ran 100 miles, and never blinned.

   • 1908, John Masefield, A sailor's garland:

     Thus blinned their boast, as we well ken

Noun

blin

1. (obsolete) cessation; end

Etymology 2

From Russian блин (blin, “pancake, flat object”).

Noun

blin

1. A blintz.

Anagrams

• LNIB