blink

USBLINK/blɪŋk/

Noun pluralblinks

22 meanings of blink

1
verbintransitive
To close both eyes for an instant and open them again.
She blinked rapidly, trying to focus in the dim room.
Most people blink about fifteen times a minute.
Note
The eye sense has the longest story on the page. Middle English had blynken or blenken, from an Old English *blincan known only because its causative blenċan, "to deceive", survives; blench is that causative's descendant. Further back lies a Germanic variant of a verb meaning "to gleam, shine", which is why the shining sense is no stray metaphor. In a staring game, whoever blinks first loses.
2
nouncountable
A quick closing and reopening of both eyes.
The doctor watched each blink for signs of irritation.
A nervous blink gave away his discomfort.
3
nounfigurativelyusually singular
A very brief interval of time; the moment it takes to close and reopen the eyes.
The thief vanished in a blink, leaving no trace behind.
In a blink, the calm sea turned violent.
Similarinstant, flash, moment, heartbeat, trice
4
verbintransitive
To show any sign of doubt, hesitation, or remorse, however slight.
The negotiator named a huge figure and the buyer didn't blink.
Soldiers train for years so they won't blink under fire.
Similarflinch, falter, waver, hesitate
Note
This one lives almost entirely in the negative: didn't blink, never blinked, without so much as blinking. Said of someone facing a shock, a price or a violent act, it reports composure, and sometimes coldness. A soldier who shoots "without so much as blinking" is chilling, not admirable. Strip away the negative and the sentence usually reads as the literal movement of the eyes instead.
5
verbintransitive
To go on and off repeatedly at a steady rhythm, as a light does.
The cursor blinked steadily, waiting for input.
Hazard lights blink to warn approaching drivers.
Similarflash, wink
6
verbtransitive or intransitive
To close and reopen the eyes in order to clear something from on or around them.
She blinked away the tears before anyone noticed.
Swimmers blink to flush chlorine from their eyes.
7
verbtransitive
To send a signal using a lighting device that flashes on and off.
The lighthouse keeper blinked a warning to the passing fleet.
Rescue teams blink coded signals when radios fail.
Similarflash, signal
8
verbtransitive
To flash the headlights of a car at another driver, usually as a signal.
He blinked the car behind him to let it pass.
Locals blink approaching cars to warn of a speed trap.
Similarflash
9
nouncountable
A quick glimpse or glance at something.
From the hilltop they caught a blink of the city far below.
A single blink at the letter was enough to tell her it was bad news.
Similarglimpse, glance, peek
10
verbintransitive
To teleport, usually over a short distance, appearing almost instantly at a nearby location.
The character blinked past the laser grid before it activated.
Players can blink through walls in the latest update.
Similarteleport
Note
Science fiction and video games borrowed the word for teleporting. A character who blinks vanishes and reappears a short way off, as quickly as an eye closes. Range is the defining feature: a blink is a hop, not a journey across worlds. It usually takes a direction (blink past, blink through, blink behind). The same idea as a named game ability is the noun.

11
noununcountable
A short-range teleportation ability that moves a character almost instantly to a nearby position.
The assassin's blink made her nearly impossible to pin down.
With blink off cooldown, he dove into the fight.
Similarteleport
Note
The ability itself, as a game names it. Players speak of having blink, using blink, or waiting for blink to come off cooldown, often with no article, as if it were a proper name. It is countable too when several characters or games have their own: a blink, two blinks. The act of using it is the teleporting verb.
12
verbintransitive
To shine with an unsteady, flickering light, as a lamp or a distant star.
Far across the harbor, the buoys blink red and green after dark.
The old lantern blinked weakly as the oil ran low.
Similarflicker, twinkle, flash, wink, glimmer
Note
Light does the blinking here, and poets took to it early. In Wordsworth's The Pet-Lamb (1800) the stars "began to blink", and in Scott's Thomas the Rhymer (1803) "the sun blinked fair on pool and stream". Scott's line shows the shine can be gentle rather than broken. Its uneven, natural glimmer is what separates it from the regular on-off flashing of a cursor or a hazard light.
13
verbintransitive
To wink, or to twinkle with the eye or as if with it.
The actors blink slyly at the audience during the comic scenes.
She blinked at him, a silent signal that the plan was on.
Similarwink
14
noununcountable
A text formatting feature that makes text disappear and reappear to draw visual attention.
The early web page applied blink to its headline, so the words kept vanishing and returning.
Many browsers stopped supporting blink because flashing text annoyed users.
Note
Computing named the effect after what it does, and the name often goes without an article: designers use blink or avoid blink. Cheryl D. Wise's Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web (2007) saw no good reason to use it. She called blinking text and images annoying, the mark of an amateur, and poorly supported by browsers.
15
verbintransitive
To make the smallest move that could draw a reaction from someone else.
In high-stakes negotiations, the first to blink often loses the advantage.
The two leaders stared each other down, and neither would blink.
Similarflinch, budge, yield
Note
Hyperbole carries this sense: the blink stands for the least gesture anyone could make. Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why" (1980) has a whole restaurant's staff dropping everything at a mere blink, a picture of someone whose smallest move commands attention. The exaggeration is the point; nobody means a literal flicker of the eyelids. Its negative cousin is the "not hesitating" sense.
16
verbintransitive
To see with the eyes half shut, peering indistinctly and winking often, as someone with weak sight does.
The old man blinked at the menu, holding it close to make out the letters.
In the glare off the water, swimmers blink and squint to spot the shore.
Similarsquint, peer
Note
Here the eyes are working, not resting: the blinker is straining to make something out. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595–1596) asks for a chink "to blink through with mine eyne", and the verb still pairs naturally with through and at. It is the peering of weak or dazzled sight, and it never carries the knowing signal of the winking sense.
17
verbtransitive
To shut something out of sight, or to evade or shirk it.
The committee blinked the issue rather than confront it directly.
You cannot blink your responsibilities forever.
Similarevade, dodge, shirk, sidestep, duck
Oppositeconfront, face, tackle
Note
To blink a fact is to refuse to look at it. James George Frazer's The Golden Bough (1900) declines "to blink or extenuate" a difficulty, and the pairing shows the company the word keeps: careful argument about awkward matters. The object is always something unwelcome, such as a question, a problem or a duty. It reverses the "not hesitating" sense: that one keeps the eyes open, and this one shuts them.
18
nouncountable
The dazzling whiteness near the horizon caused by light reflecting off fields of ice at sea.
The lookout reported a strong blink to the north, a sure sign of ice fields ahead.
Across the cold gray sea, a faint blink marked where the ice began.
Note
A sailor's sign in the sky rather than on the water: light thrown upward from pack ice brightens the clouds, so a lookout can locate ice still beyond direct view. It is the "gleam" noun put to work, close to its Germanic root meaning "to gleam, shine". Iceblink is the unambiguous form; plain blink serves aboard ship, either counted (a strong blink) or as a mass noun.
19
noundialectalUKcountable
A gleam, glimmer, or sparkle of light.
A blink of light danced across the loch as the sun broke through.
He saw a sudden blink in her eye, a flash of mischief.
Similargleam, glimmer, sparkle, glint, twinkle
Note
A regional noun for a brief gleam, and both Wordsworth and Scott reached for it. Wordsworth writes "Not a blink of light was there" (1835), and Walter Scott (1808) has a man vanish "as he had been a blink of the sun". It is usually built with of: a blink of light, a blink of the sun. In standard modern English it reads as British dialect, and gleam is the neutral word.
20
verbintransitive
To turn slightly sour, as beer, milk, or similar drinks do when going off.
In the summer heat, the milk soon blinks and develops a sour edge.
The cream will blink fast if it sits out of the cold.
Similarsour, turn
21
verbobsoleteGeordieintransitive
To glance, or give a quick look.
Now exile is over, I'll fly to the north, The home of my childhood, the place of my birth; O the transports of gladness that over me reign, To blink upon canny Newcastle again!
1850, J. P. Robson, editor
Note
A Tyneside verb for looking, now obsolete. In J. P. Robson's Songs of the bards of the Tyne (1850), the returning exile longs "to blink upon canny Newcastle again!" It took upon or at, and it meant a look, not a closing of the eyes. Outside Geordie pastiche, use glance; the noun a glimpse keeps the same idea in circulation.
22
noununcountableplural
Boughs laid where deer will pass, used to turn or check them.
Gamekeepers set blink along the ridge to guide the deer past the waiting guns.
The deer balked at the blink and swung back toward the woods.
Note
A hunter's term that usually comes in the plural. Blinks are boughs thrown down where deer are expected to pass, so that the animals turn aside or check. Nothing here flashes or shines. The boughs work by blocking a path, not by catching the eye, so the word stands well apart from every light sense of blink.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English blynken, from an Old English form connected to blenċan ("to deceive"), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną ("to gleam, shine"). It is cognate with Dutch blinken ("to glitter, shine"), German blinken ("to flash, blink"), and the Scandinavian blinke, and related to blank and bleak.