Blink

  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Blink

Definition: Blink

Blink

Noun

1. A reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly.

Verb

1. Briefly shut the eyes; "The TV announcer never seems to blink".

2. Force to go away by blinking; "blink away tears".

3. Gleam or glow intermittently; "The lights were flashing".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "blink" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)


Specialty Definition: Blink

DomainDefinition

Computing

Blink vi.,n. To use a navigator or off-line message reader to minimize time spent on-line to a commercial network service (a necessity in many places outside the U.S. where the telecoms monopolies charge per-minute for local calls). This term attained wide use in the UK, but is rare or unknown in the US. Source: Jargon File.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Blink

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField
BLKEnglishBlinkN/A

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Synonyms: Blink

Synonyms: blinking (n), eye blink (n), nictation (n), nictitation (n), winking (n), blink away (v), flash (v), nictate (v), nictitate (v), twinkle (v), wink (v), winkle (v). (additional references)
Synonyms by domain: blinked (medicine).

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Synonyms within Context: Blink

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Avoidance

Shrink back; hang back, hold back, draw back; recoil; retire; (recede); flinch, blink, blench, shy, shirk, dodge, parry, make way for, give place to.

Instantaneity

Adverb: instantaneously; Adjective: in no time, in less than no time; presto, subito, instanter, suddenly, at a stroke, like a shot; in a moment; n. in the blink of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye, in a trice; in one's tracks; right away; toute a l'heure; at one jump, in the same breath, per saltum, uno saltu; at once, all at once; plump, slap; "at one fell swoop"; at the same instant; Noun: immediately; (early); extempore, on the moment, on the spot, on the spur of the moment; no sooner said than done; just then; slap-dash; (haste).

Irresolution

Shuffle, palter, blink; trim.

Neglect

Overlook, disregard; pass over, pas by; let pass; blink; wink at, connive at;gloss over; take no note of, take no thought of, take no account of, take no notice of; pay no regard to; laisser aller.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Blink

English words defined with "blink": Blenk, blink of an eye, BlinkedflashinstantjiffyLand blinkNew York minutepalpebratesplit secondtrice, twinklingwink. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Blink" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Afrikaan (bright, brilliant), Norwegian (flash), Swedish (blink, twinkling, wink).

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Modern Usage: Blink

DomainUsage

Screenplays

If anyone attacks we can blink em' to death (Toy Story; writing credit: John Lasseter; Andrew Stanton)

All I do is think and blink. (I Dream of Jeannie; writing credit: James B. Allardice)

For others, years go by as in the blink of an eye. For Jesse Tuck, time didn't exist (Tuck Everlasting; writing credit: Jeffrey Lieber)

In the blink of an eye. Remember that (Commando; writing credit: Joseph Loeb III; Matthew Weisman)

Blink once, you're dead (Aeon Flux; writing credit: Mario Sábato)

Lyrics

In half the time it takes to blink (Girls of Summer; performing artist: Aerosmith)

Were sweet i didn't blink (Around the World (La la la la la); performing artist: ATC)

Street lights blink on through the car window (FOUND OUT ABOUT YOU; performing artist: Gin Blossoms)

If she's with me I'll blink the lights (Part-time lover; performing artist: Stevie Wonder)

Love can't replace in the blink of an eye (After The Rain Has Fallen; performing artist: Sting)

Clever

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Bunting's Blink (1915)

Fish Don't Blink (2002)

In the Blink of an Eye (1996)

Aoi Blink (1989)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Blink

DomainTitle

Books

  

Theater & Movies

  • Blink 182 - The Urethra Chronicles, Vol. II: Harder Faster Faster Harder (reference)

  • Blink 182: The Urethra Chronicles (reference)

  • Blink (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

High Tech

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Blink

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

STAN, short for "standard man," is able to talk, breathe, blink its eyes, and mimic a large number of other human actions. By displaying any number of "casualty symptoms," STAN will provide valuable training for Air Force nurses as par.

Watch Out! : A child can drown in the blink of an eye. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Use in Literature: Blink

TitleAuthorQuote

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

There was something very slightly odd about him, but it was difficult to say what it was. Perhaps it was that his eyes didn't blink often enough and when you talked to him for any length of time your eyes began involuntarily to water on his behalf

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Blink

"Blink" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 46.57% of the time. "Blink" is used about 204 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)46.57%9533,629
Noun (singular)41.18%8436,109
Lexical Verb (base form)11.76%2471,196
Unclassified Items0.49%1339,140
                    Total100.00%204N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Blink

Expressions using "blink": be on the blink blink an eye blink at blink at a fault blink away Blink beer blink of an eye blink one's eyes blink the facts eye blink Ice blink in a blink Land blink on the blink to blink. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "blink": blink-and-you'll-miss-him, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, Blink-eyed, blink-of-the-eye.

Ending with "blink": eye-blink, snow-blink.

Containing "blink": low-blink-rate.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Blink

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

blink 182

9,041

blink 182 poster

40

blink 182 lyrics

1,049

blink 182 logo

38

blink 182 picture

683

blink 182 song

38

blink

424

blink 182 adam song

37

blink 182 tab

402

blink 182 discography

36

blink 182 wallpaper

242

blink 182 biography

35

blink 182 guitar tab

202

blink 182 drum tab

30

102.7 blink

130

blink 182 screensaver

29

182.com blink

101

new blink 182 cd

28

blink 182 mp3

99

blink 182 song lyrics

28

blink 182 video

86

182 blink date first

28

182 blink buddy icon

81

blink 182 music

27

blink 182 photo

55

blink 182 desktop theme

26

blink 182 quote

53

182 aim blink icon

26

182 adam blink lyrics song

51

blink 182 all the small things lyrics

26

blink quinn

51

182 blink tattoo

25

blink 182 music video

48

blink 182 downloads

24

blink reward

44

182 blink travis

24

blink 182 icon

42

blink 182 concert

24

blink 182 new album

40

all the small things blink 182

23
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Blink

Language Translations for "blink"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

vezullon (click, coruscate, glance, glint), kapsit sytë, injoroj (dissemble, ignore, pigeonhole, slight), dridhem (dither, dodder, flicker, flinch, give a start, pulsate, quake, quiver, shake, shiver, shudder, thrill, tremble, twiddle, twitch, vibrate, wabble, waver, wince, wobble, writhe). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏نظرة سريعة (peep), ‏نظر خلسة, ‏نظر بعينين متطرفتين, ‏غمز (give a wink to, insinuation, leer, ogle, wink, wink at each other), ‏غض الطرف, ‏تعامى عن, ‏تطرف العين (twinkle), ‏أومض (glance, glimmer, glint, glisten, glitter, scintillate, shimmer, twinkle). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

трептя (oscillate, throb, tingle, tremble, tremor, vacillate, vibrate, waver, wink), гледам с безразличие, мигам (glimmer, nictate, nictitate, wink), пуля се (goggle), премигвам, игнорирам (cold shoulder, cushion, ignore, overlook, set aside). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

霎眼 (in an instant), (glance, pearl used in sacrifice), 眨眼 (blinks). (various references)

   

Czech

  

blikat (flash, flicker, gutter, twinkle, wink), zlobit (act up, annoy, bother, get up to mischief, irk, irritate, spite), záblesk (flare, flash, gleam, glimmer, glimpse, glint, twinkle), mrknutí (wink), mrkat (flicker, wink). (various references)

   

Danish

  

blinke (nictate, nicticate, wink). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

pinken, knipperen, knipogen. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

palpebrumi. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

blunka. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

نگاه مختصر (Glance), نادیده گرفته , چشمک زدن (Bat, Sparkle, Wink), چشمک (Twinkle, Wink), تجاهل کردن (Connive, Evade, Ignore), سوسوزدن (Flicker, Gleam, Glimmer, Shimmer). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

vilkuttaa (wave, wink), vilkkua (flash, flicker, twinkle), räpyttää silmää. (various references)

   

French

  

vaciller, plisser les yeux, lueur, clignotons, clignotez, clignotent, clignotement (blinking), cligner des yeux, cligner, ciller. (various references)

   

German

  

blinzeln (squint, wink), zwinkern (twinkle, wink), blinken (flash, flashing, gleam, glint, indicate, shine, signal, to flash). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

αναβοσβήνω. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מצמוץ עין (blinking, twinkle, wink, winking), למצמץ (wink), לעפעף (flicker, wink), ל"ב"ב (flicker, glimmer, singe). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

pislogás (flutter, twinkle, winking). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

mengedipkan mata, kejapan, geridip. (various references)

   

Italian

  

battere gli occhi, sguardo rapido, occhiata (glance, glimpse, look, peek, peep), lampeggiare (flash, lighten, lightning, wink), guizzo di luce, ammiccare (nictate, nictitate, Ogle, wink). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

あっと言う"に (in the blink of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye, just like that), あっという"に (in the blink of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye, just like that). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

あっというまに (in the blink of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye, just like that). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

장 호 (Blinking, blinks). (various references)

   

Manx

  

meekey (blinking, flick of eye, flicker, peep, twinkle, wink), meek (twinkle, wink). (various references)

   

Maya

  

mudz-ich (to blink). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

inkblay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

piscar (twinkle), pestanejar (flicker, nictate, nictitate, twinkle). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

licãrire (glance, glimmer, glimpse, glint, glitter, Ray, shimmer, spark, sparkle, sparkling, twinkle), clipire din ochi (nictation, nictitation, twinkle, wink), clipi din ochi (nictitate, twinkle, wink one's eye), închide ochii la. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

щуриться, моргать (bat one's eyes, nictitate), мерцать (flicker, glimmer, scintillate, shimmer, shimmers), мигать мигание, мигать (bat one's eyes, flicker, nictate, nictitate, wink, winks). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

sg ileadh (a blink of light). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

zatreptati, treptati (nictate, nictitate), trepnuti (wince), namignuti (wink), žmigati. (various references)

   

Shona

  

-bhwaira (to blink). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

parpadeo (blinking, flicker, flickering, nictation, nictitation, quiver, twinkle, wink, winking). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

glimta (glance, glint), blinka (flash, nictate, twinkle, wink), blink (twinkling, wink). (various references)

   

Thai

  

การกะพริบตา, กะพริบตา. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

bakış (dekko, eye, gander, glance, look, regard, slant, view), titreşerek parlamak, parlamak (beam, blaze, coruscate, flare up, flash, fulminate, glare, gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, glow, light up, lighten, loose off at, shine, shine out, smile, sparkle, twinkle), parıltı (glance, glare, gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, glow, luster, lustre, Orient, shimmer), nazar (evil eye, eye, hex, look, regard, sight, whammy), kırpmak (bat, clip, crop, cut, pare, retrench, shave, shear, wink), kırpıştırmak, gözünü kırpıştırma, göz yummak (blink at, condone, connive, excuse, face up to, have, leave unnoticed, let smth. pass unchallenged, overlook, pass by, permit of, suffer, tolerate, wink, wink at), göz kırpmak (cock one's eye at, nictitate, twinkle, wink, wink at), göz ardı etmek, görmemezlikten gelmek (blink at, close one's eyes to, connive, cut, cut smb. dead, dissemble, give smb. the go-by, look through, overlook, overpass, pass off, pretend not to see, turn a blind eye, wink at), ışıltı (blaze, flash, glint, light, shining, twinkle), ışıldamak (coruscate, gleam, glint, scintillate, shine, sparkle, twinkle). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

щулитися (cower, peep), відблиск (afterglow, glisten, glow, reflection, reflexion), моргати (flicker, nictate, nictitate, wink), мерехтіння (flicker, glimpse, twinkle, twinkling, winking), миготіти (wink), миготіння, мигати (bat, bat one's eyes, nictate, nictitate, occult), блимати (glimmer, occult, shimmer), блимання (flicker, flickering, glimmer, shimmer). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

trong tình trạng rối loạn lộn xộn hấp hối, say bí tỉ (canned, premise, soused), sắp chết say khướt, cái nháy mắt, cái chớp mắt ánh lửa chập chờn, ánh lửa lung linh. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

ysmicio, cau'r llygaid, amrantu. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Blink

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

coierit, coierunt, coniventes. (various references)

Old English450-1100

bryhtm. (various references)

Middle Dutch1100-1500

blinken. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Blink

Derivations

Words beginning with "blink": blinkard, blinkards, blinked, blinker, blinkered, blinkering, blinkers, blinking, blinks. (additional references)

Words ending with "blink": iceblink. (additional references)

Words containing "blink": iceblinks, unblinking, unblinkingly. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Blink" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Balick, Belinsky, biln, Binka, bleng, bleni, bli, blik, blina, blinb, blinc, Blinco, bline, bling, blinn, blinq, blint, blisk, Blonc, blonk, Blumka, Blyne, boink, Bylinski, Eblin, glink. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Blink"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "blink" (pronounced bli"ngk)
4-l i" ng kclink, interlink, link, plink.
3-i" ng kbrink, chink, cinque, dink, drink, fink, ink, mink, minke, pink, rethink, rink, shrink, sink, stink, swink, sync, think, wink, zinc.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Blink

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "b-i-k-l-n"

-1 letter: bilk, blin, kiln, link.

-2 letters: bin, ilk, ink, kin, lib, lin, nib, nil.

-3 letters: bi, in, li.

 Words containing the letters "b-i-k-l-n"
 

+1 letter: blinks.

 

+2 letters: balking, bilking, blinked, blinker, bulking, inkblot, lambkin, linkboy, niblick, niblike.

 

+3 letters: balkline, barnlike, baulking, beanlike, blackfin, blacking, blanking, blinkard, blinkers, blinking, blocking, bobolink, buckling, iceblink, inkblots, kibbling, kingbolt, knoblike, lambkins, lambskin, linkable, linkboys, niblicks, sinkable.

 

+4 letters: antiblack, balkanize, balkiness, balklines, blackfins, blackings, blinkards, blinkered, bobolinks, bulkiness, bumpkinly, drinkable, iceblinks, kingbolts, knobblier, lambskins, multibank, thinkable, thinkably, unlikable.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Fiction
8. Usage Frequency
9. Expressions
10. Expressions: Internet
11. Translations: Modern
12. Translations: Ancient
13. Abbreviations
14. Acronyms
15. Derivations
16. Rhymes
17. Anagrams
18. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.