- the act of shutting and opening your eyes very quicklyWord OriginMiddle English: from blenk, Scots variant of blench, reinforced by Middle Dutch blinken ‘to shine’. Early senses included ‘deceive’, ‘flinch’ (compare with blench), and also ‘open the eyes after sleep’: hence sense (1) (mid 16th cent.).
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Idioms
See blink in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryin the blink of an eye
- very quickly; in a short time
on the blink
- (informal) (of a machine) no longer working correctly
Check pronunciation:
blink