blink

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. 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. The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
8. n. A text formatting feature that causes text to disappear and reappear as a form of visual emphasis.

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. To trick; to deceive.
7. n. A glimpse or glance.
8. n. Gleam; glimmer; sparkle.
9. n. The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; ice blink.
10. n. 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