en un abrir y cerrar de ojos
Appearance
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, “in an opening and closing of eyes”.
Adverb
[edit]- (idiomatic) in the wink of an eye, in the blink of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye
- 2020 October 11, Alejandro Ciriza, El País[1]:
- No está fino, duda, se enreda. Y, en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, ha recibido una sacudida tremenda.
- [Djokovic] isn't fine-tuned, he's doubting, he's bamboozled. And then, in the blink of an eye, he's been shaken about like crazy.
- (idiomatic) at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, in a heartbeat
Further reading
[edit]- “en un abrir, o en un abrir y cerrar, o en un volver, de ojos”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28