blinks

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present of blink.

   She blinks when a sudden burst of light hits her eyes.

   The cursor blinks steadily at the start of each empty line.

   Note

   The -s form carries every sense of the verb, so it suits a lamp or a cursor as readily as an eye: the light blinks, the screen blinks. Usually it takes no object. The exception is clearing something from the eyes, where an object follows, as in she blinks away tears. The northern Geordie sense "to glance" is obsolete and should not be used today.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of blink.

   Her tired blinks grew longer as the lecture dragged on.

   The doctor watched for any unusual blinks during the eye exam.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of the noun: separate closings of the eye, quick glimpses, and in UK dialect gleams or glimmers of light. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, so her blinks and she blinks differ only in grammar. In a sentence, a determiner or adjective in front (her blinks, tired blinks) marks the noun, and a subject in front marks the verb.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A herbaceous annual plant, Montia fontana, of the family Montiaceae, found growing in wet places such as springs and shallow water.

   Botanists noted blinks carpeting the damp hollows of the upland moor.

   Blinks thrives in shallow water and waterlogged soil where few other plants take hold.

   Note

   A botanist's name that only looks plural: it takes a singular verb (blinks thrives in wet ground) and has no plural of its own, which keeps it apart from the plural of a blink. It was formerly placed among the purslanes, Portulacaceae, and now sits in Montiaceae. Its other common names, water blinks, water chickweed and annual water miner's lettuce, all point to the wet places where it grows.

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