blinker

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See also: Blinker

English[edit]

Front and side turn signals working (#1)
US racehorses wearing "blinker hoods" (#2)
A black eye (#6)

Etymology[edit]

From blink +‎ -er.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

blinker (plural blinkers)

  1. Anything that blinks.
    She was a frequent blinker, always on the verge of tears.
  2. (informal, Australia, Northern US) The turn signal of an automobile.
    Synonyms: (Australia, Britain, New Zealand) directional, directional signal, direction indicator, indicator, trafficator, turn indicator, (chiefly US) turn signal, (informal) winker
  4. Chiefly in the plural: a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side.
    Synonyms: blinder, winker
  5. Whatever obstructs sight or discernment.
    • 1732, Matthew Green, Grotto:
      This floor let not the vulgar tread, / Who worship only what they dread: / Nor bigots who but one way see, / Through blinkers of authority
  6. (rare) The eyelid.
  7. (slang) A black eye.
    • 2011, Mari Christie, Concrete Loyalties, page 419:
      The next morning, Jimmy came home with a fat lip and a black eye. Flory rushed over to tend to him. “Ain't nothin'. Just a blinker... had a fight with a guy. […]
  8. (cellular automata) In Conway's Game of Life, an arrangement of three cells in a row that switches between horizontal and vertical orientations in each generation.
    • 1992 August 13, David Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 1)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[1] (Usenet):
      The following for example, doesn't work because the spark at the top is actually a blinker, and doesn't die. Without the blinker, this object is known as an OWSS (overweight spaceship).
    • 1994 May 13, Louis Howell, “Louis Howell's question of block clearing in life (simple solution)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[2] (Usenet):
      3 live cells together can yield either a blinker or a block, so these will be the most common objects formed "out of the void".
    • 2008 January 8, Dave Greene, “Evolutionary factor in Conway's life”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[3] (Usenet):
      As Hickerson points out, a glider aimed at a faraway blinker or preblock has only 8 cells, but can be arranged to run as long as you want.
  9. (slang) A situation where the light of a dab pen or vape starts blinking, which happens when the user takes an extremely long hit.
    I just hit a blinker.
    a double blinker (hitting blinkers on two pens simultaneously)
    • 2023 January 31, @GreedyAlmighty, Twitter‎[4], archived from the original on 9 December 2023:
      When you just hit 2 back to back blinkers off the dab pen and you trying to hold your cough around people

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

turn signal — see indicator

Verb[edit]

blinker (third-person singular simple present blinkers, present participle blinkering, simple past and past participle blinkered)

  1. (transitive) To put blinkers on.
    The farmer stopped to blinker his horse before riding into an area of heavy traffic.

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Danish[edit]

Verb[edit]

blinker

  1. present of blinke

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Noun[edit]

blinker m

  1. indefinite plural of blink

Verb[edit]

blinker

  1. present of blinke

Swedish[edit]

Noun[edit]

blinker c

  1. (automotive) (US) a turn signal, (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) an indicator (that blinks)
    Synonym: körriktningsvisare
  2. a blinker (device that blinks, especially an alerting device for deaf and hearing impaired)

Declension[edit]

Declension of blinker 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative blinker blinkern blinkers, blinkrar blinkersen, blinkrarna
Genitive blinkers blinkerns blinkers, blinkrars blinkersens, blinkrarnas

References[edit]

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