"blink" - Word of the Day from the OED

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blink, n.2

SECOND EDITION 1989

(blk)  Forms: 4 blynke, 6 blinck, 7 blinke, 7- blink. [f. BLINK v. 3-4; like which it is found in ME. in Robert of Brunne, where contemporaries used BLENK.] 

    1. a. A sudden or momentary gleam of light from the sun, a fire, etc.; a slight flash; a peep of light; a twinkling gleam, as of the stars; a gleam of sunshine between showers: also poet. ‘glimmer.’

1717 Protest. Mercury 5 July 6 A terrible Fire..caus'd.. by a Blink of Fire that issued from some adjoining Chimney, and lodg'd in the Thatch. 1818 SCOTT Hrt. Midl. xi, Creep out of their holes like blue-bottle flies in a blink of sunshine. 1833 WORDSW. Sonn. vii, Not a blink Of light was there. 1834 R. MUDIE Brit. Birds (1841) I. 323 The blink of reddish orange displayed by the flirt of the tail. 1855 BROWNING Statue & Bust, In a bed-chamber by a taper's blink.

    b. fig. A ‘glimmer’ or ‘spark’ of anything good.    c. A brief gleam of mental sunshine.

1303 R. BRUNNE Handl. Synne 4449 e leste oghte..at of godenesse hadde any blynke. 1730 T. BOSTON Mem. vi. 132, I sometimes have blinks of great joy. a1752 R. ERSKINE in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. ci, I will sing of my blinks and of my showers. 1833 M. SCOTT Tom Cringle xix. (1859) 542, I shall always bless heaven for my fair Blinks.

    d. on the blink: on the point of becoming extinguished; in a bad state, out of order. slang (orig. U.S.).

1901 ‘H. MCHUGH’ John Henry 83 A stranglehold line of business that will put Looey Harrison on the blink. 1904 ‘O. HENRY’ Cabbages & Kings iii. 51 This café looks on the blink, but I guess it can set out something wet. 1912 WODEHOUSE Prince & Betty xiii. 176 That punt-pole's on the blink. I tried it yesterday, and it creaked. 1934 Right Ho, Jeeves xi. 136 All those years he spent in making millions in the Far East put his digestion on the blink. 1960 J. ASHFORD Counsel for Defence vi. 68 No good, David. The 'frig. is on the blink again.

    2. a. A glance (usually, a bright, cheerful glance); a glimpse. (Chiefly Sc.)

1594 CAREW Tasso (1881) 7 Lookes downe, and in one blinck, and in one vew, Comprizeth all what so the world can shew. Ibid. 95 Her eyes Sweet blinck. 1715 Let. in Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 66 We have had a sweet blink at the sacrament last Sabbath. 1790 BURNS Tam O'Shanter, For ae blink o' the bonnie burdies. 1816 SCOTT Old Mort. xxxvii, I wish my master were living to get a blink o't. 1839 BAILEY Festus xviii. (1848) 185 By the blink of thine eye.

    b. The action or an act of blinking.

1924 GALSWORTHY White Monkey I. xii, He did not miss the shift and blink in the manager's eyes.

    3. transf. The time taken by a glance; an instant, the twinkling of an eye; = Ger. Augenblick. (Chiefly Sc.)

a1813 A. WILSON Hogmenae, The liquor was brought in a blink. 1827 SCOTT Two Drovers, Stay Robinbide a blink. 1864 HAWKER Quest Sangraal 24 Whole Ages glided in that Blink of Time.

    4. = ICE-BLINK: a shining whiteness about the horizon produced by reflection from distant masses of ice. Also, loosely, a large mass or field of ice, an iceberg.

1772-84 COOK Voy. (1790) V. 1854 A brightness in the northern horizon, like that reflected from ice, usually called the blink. 1818 Edin. Rev. XXX. 17 The blink from packs of ice, appears of a pure white. 1837 MACDOUGALL tr. Graah's Greenland 80 During the three hours we took to pass this blink, it calved about twenty times. 1856 KANE Arct. Exp. I. v. 49, I ascended to the crow's-nest, and saw..the ominous blink of ice ahead.

    5. blink microscope [G. blinkmikroskop], an instrument for viewing two photographs of the same section of the sky alternately in rapid succession. Also called blink comparator.

[1910 C. PULFRICH in Zeitschr. f. Instrumentenkunde XXX. 1 Die Anwendung des Blinkmikroskops.] 1911 C. PULFRICH in Encycl. Brit. XXV. 900/2 Since 1904 binocular observation of stellar plates..has been gradually discarded for the method devised by Pulfrich, which consists in the monocular observation of the two plates..with the assistance of the so-called ‘blink’ microscope. 1930 Discovery Aug. 252/2 It [sc. the planet Pluto] was identified from its motion past the numerous fixed stars as revealed on plates of the same star field while being compared under the blink comparator.

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