Log in or Sign up
  1. blink love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To close and open one or both of the eyes rapidly.
  2. v. To look through half-closed eyes, as in a bright glare; squint.
  3. v. To shine with intermittent gleams; flash on and off.
  4. v. To be startled or dismayed.
  5. v. To waver or back down, as in a contest of wills: "This was the first genuine, direct confrontation between this administration and the Soviets. It was the U.S.A. that blinked” ( Zbigniew Brzezinski).
  6. v. To look with feigned ignorance: a mayor who blinks at the corruption in city government.
  7. v. To cause to blink.
  8. v. To hold back or remove from the eyes by blinking: blinked back the tears.
  9. v. To refuse to recognize or face: blink ugly facts.
  10. v. To transmit (a message) with a flashing light.
  11. n. The act or an instance of rapidly closing and opening the eyes or an eye.
  12. n. An instant: I'll be back in a blink.
  13. n. Scots A quick look or glimpse; a glance.
  14. n. A flash of light; a twinkle.
  15. n. See iceblink.
  16. idiom. on the blink Out of working order.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To wink rapidly and repeatedly; nictitate.
  2. To see with the eyes half shut or with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes; hence, to get a glimpse; peep.
  3. Figuratively, to look askance or indifferently.
  4. To intermit light; glimmer: as “a blinking lamp,”
  5. To gleam transiently but cheerfully; smile; look kindly.
  6. 6. To become a little stale or sour: said of milk or beer.
  7. To deceive; elude; shun.
  8. To see or catch sight of with half-shut eyes; dimly see; wink at.
  9. Figuratively, to shut one's eyes to; avoid or purposely evade; shirk: as, to blink a question.
  10. To balk at; pass by; shirk: as, a dog that never blinked a bird.
  11. To blindfold; hoodwink.
  12. n. A glance of the eye; a glimpse.
  13. n. A gleam; a glimmer; specifically, the gleam or glimmer reflected from ice in the polar regions: hence the term ice-blink (which see).
  14. n. A very short time; a twinkling: as, bide a blink.
  15. n. A trick; a scheme.
  16. n. plural Boughs thrown to turn aside deer from their course; also, feathers, etc., on a thread to scare birds.
  17. n. A fishermen's name for the mackerel when about a year old. See spike and tinker.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
  2. v. To flash headlights on a car.
  3. v. To send a signal with a lighting device.
  4. v. To flash on and off at regular intervals.
  5. v. hyperbolic To perform the smallest action that could solicit a response.
  6. n. The act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.
  7. n. figuratively The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
  8. n. computing A text formatting feature that causes text to disappear and reappear as a form of visual emphasis.
  9. n. A glimpse or glance.
  10. n. UK, dialect gleam; glimmer; sparkle
  11. n. nautical The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink
  12. n. sports, in the plural Boughs cast where deer are to pass, in order to turn or check them.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
  2. v. To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
  3. v. To shine, esp. with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
  4. v. To turn slightly sour, as beer, mild, etc.
  5. v. To shut out of sight; to avoid, or purposely evade; to shirk.
  6. v. Scot. To trick; to deceive.
  7. n. A glimpse or glance.
  8. n. Gleam; glimmer; sparkle.
  9. n. (Naut.) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; ice blink.
  10. n. (Sporting), Prov. Eng. Boughs cast where deer are to pass, to turn or check them.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. gleam or glow intermittently
  2. v. briefly shut the eyes
  3. n. a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly
  4. v. force to go away by blinking

Etymologies

  1. From Middle Dutch blinken. Related to blank. (Wiktionary)
  2. Probably Middle English blinken, to move suddenly, variant of blenchen; see blench1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘blink’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • brainstem LOTS of Am. Heritage definition #5 in political news recently! Feb 12, 2010

  • jennarenn SonofGroucho, this *is* a classic wordie page. brtom hasn't commented in ages, and I've already added it to one of my conversations lists. :) Oct 5, 2007

  • arby And don't make seanahan stabby.. you wouldn't like him when he's stabby. Oct 5, 2007

  • seanahan This makes me stabby. Oct 5, 2007

  • arby < blink > </ blink > without the spaces.

    ETA: I ♥ the blink tag.

    SON OF ETA: Uselessness macros for the win! Oct 5, 2007

  • sonofgroucho This could become a classic Wordie page. Oct 4, 2007

  • oroboros Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Urban legend? Oct 4, 2007

  • reesetee Ouch! You're hurting my eyes! ;-) Jul 14, 2007

  • uselessness DO NOT WANT Jul 13, 2007

  • arby Like Omigod, you are totally using Firefox!

    (heh) Jul 13, 2007

  • uselessness Oh, nevermind then. Lou Montulli is the jerk programmer (I keed, I keed) who invented the blink tag. He did a lot of good stuff too, but c'mon. The blink tag. Ewww. Jul 13, 2007

  • uselessness I'm totally using Firefox. If yours decided not to show marquees and mine didn't, I'm a more than a little bit jealous. Jul 13, 2007

  • arby I do see it now! I must not have waited long enough because it seems to take an awfully long time to scroll over. Jul 13, 2007

  • arby who the hell is Lou Montulli? Jul 13, 2007

  • arby HA HA HA! Guess Firefox just couldn't hack it.

    Look Ma, I'm marqueeing with no hands! Jul 13, 2007

  • uselessness I don't think I've seen one of those since 1994.

    And for good reason. :-0

    EDIT: You got rid of it. It was working fine! Err, as it was designed to. I'd hardly call it "fine." Jul 13, 2007

  • arby I secretly kind of like it.

    Sadly, marquee doesn't seem to work. Jul 13, 2007

  • uselessness Ugh. The bane of the internet since 1994. Thanks a lot, Lou Montulli. Jul 13, 2007

  • muamor BLINK. Jul 13, 2007

  • brtom "The man of science like the man in the street has to face hardheaded facts that cannot be blinked and explain them as best he can. "
    Joyce, Ulysses, 14 Jan 21, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for blink.

‘blink’ has been looked up 3825 times, loved by 4 people, added to 42 lists, commented on 20 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.