blink

1 of 2

verb

blinked; blinking; blinks

intransitive verb

1
a
obsolete : to look glancingly : peep
b
: to look with half-shut eyes
c
: to close and open the eyes involuntarily
2
: to shine dimly or intermittently
3
a
: to look with too little concern
b
: to look with surprise or dismay
4
: yield, give in
each side waiting for the other to blink

transitive verb

1
a
: to cause to blink
b
: to remove (something, such as tears) from the eye by blinking
2
: to deny recognition to

blink

2 of 2

noun

1
chiefly Scotland : glimpse, glance
2
3
: a usually involuntary shutting and opening of the eye
4
Phrases
in the blink of an eye
: in an instant
on the blink
: in or into a disabled or useless condition
the TV is on the blink

Examples of blink in a Sentence

Verb She blinked when the light flashed. Her eyes blinked when the light flashed. She blinked her eyes when the light flashed.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
On Wednesday, Timberlake shared a response video that featured him pulling down a pair of sunglasses and blinking twice, before pulling them back up and smiling. Rachel Desantis, Peoplemag, 28 Feb. 2024 For a few weeks in April (again, timing depends on weather), the woods fill with thousands of blinking fireflies at dusk. Bonnie Gross, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024 If there is a rush — a latecomer to a large party, someone who has to dash back to the office or a child — the ticket blinks. Jill Wendholt Silva, Kansas City Star, 24 Jan. 2024 However, Saini says that these are all temporary symptoms likely caused by people not blinking enough while using the devices. Victoria Song, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2024 And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink. Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 14 Feb. 2024 Approaching 10 months in her position, the blinking red light on her radar is Gaza: the Palestinian territory under siege from Israel which, by her agency’s estimates, is facing one of the most acute hunger crises since the organization began systematically recording them. Laura Gersony, The Arizona Republic, 31 Jan. 2024 But showing the maturity required of a team with championship aspirations, UCLA didn’t blink. Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 7 Jan. 2024 Birdsong flicks and flutters in the air and her eyes follow it, darting side to side, blinking and rolling with every tiny quiver in the melody. Sara Holdren, Vulture, 25 Jan. 2024
Noun
Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. Jason Lipshutz, Billboard, 20 Mar. 2024 In a rematch of the 2022 final – which Świątek clinched with a similarly imperious 6-4 6-1 win – the Pole narrowly edged a back-and-forth opening set, but the second was over in the blink of an eye. Matias Grez, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024 Some day soon or further off, synthetic narrators and actors might be commonplace and accepted without so much as a blink, but for now there is room for debate: What is lost and what is gained when a machine does the work of a human performer? Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2024 No tension, just a blink of internal struggle, and then Paul—the messiah, the Lisan al Gaib—rides to the rescue on the back of a sandworm. Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 1 Mar. 2024 After all, while these fantastical spaces can be dreamed up in the blink of an eye, these visuals are not based in the reality of a tight budget or structural limitations. Kelsey Mulvey, Sunset Magazine, 7 Mar. 2024 Spectrum Original article from 17 August 2012 follows: Wirelessly transfer huge files in the blink of an eye! IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2024 The researchers estimated that in the neotropical genus Chiton, for example, the eyespots evolved within just 7 million years — a blink of an eye in evolutionary time. Quanta Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024 In just a blink of time, suddenly 10 years have passed since Tony Gwynn’s 2014 death. Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blink.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

variant of blenk, going back to Middle English blenken "to shine, gleam, turn pale" and "to move suddenly or sharply, change direction, evade, mislead," perhaps going back to Germanic *blinkan-, nasal present based on pre-Germanic *blei̯k-, the base of *blīkan- "to shine" (or, alternatively, if *blenk- is primary, a derivative from the base of *blanka- "bright, white, without color") — more at bleach entry 1, blank entry 1

Note: In Middle English, the verbs blenken and blenchen (see blench entry 1) cannot be easily separated by sense. The variants with -k-, to judge by citations in Middle English Dictionary, are less common, though the preterit bleynte might represent either variant. There are only a few Middle English forms with -i- rather than -e-, two of them from Robert Mannyng of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (in the senses "open the eyes [while waking up]" and "lead astray"); otherwise blink is rare before the seventeenth century. — Middle English blenken is paralleled by Middle Dutch blenken, blinken "to shine," Middle Low German blenken "to shine" (also "to make bright or clean"). The late appearance of these verbs in Germanic, as well as the divergences in meaning, make it difficult to divine the original situation; moreover, the expressive nature of verbs having the do with effects of light (compare, in English, sparkle, twinkle, glitter, etc.) favors multiplication of variants. If -e- is the primary vowel in English and the continental dialects, -i- may be explained as either raising before a nasal or neutralizing of the distinction (as in modern southern American English). The meanings "evade, mislead" can be seen as a causative of "to shine" (by way of a sense "deceive by means of light, bedazzle"). It is harder to explain the merger of presumed causative forms with stative forms, however.

Noun

derivative of blink entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Noun

1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of blink was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near blink

Cite this Entry

“Blink.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blink. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

blink

1 of 2 verb
1
a
: to look with half-shut eyes
b
: to close and open the eyes involuntarily
2
: to wink quickly
blink back tears
3
: to shine with a light that goes or seems to go on and off
streetlights blinking through rain

blink

2 of 2 noun
1
2
: a shutting and opening of the eyes

Medical Definition

blink

1 of 2 intransitive verb
: to close and open the eyes involuntarily (as when struggling against drowsiness or when dazzled)

transitive verb

1
: to close and open (the eye) involuntarily
2
: to remove (as tears) from the eye by blinking

blink

2 of 2 noun
: a usually involuntary shutting and opening of the eye

More from Merriam-Webster on blink

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