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 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. Þe leste þoghte … Þat of godenesse hadde any blynke.
1730. T. Boston, Mem., vi. 132. I sometimes have blinks of great joy.
a. 1752. 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.
2. A glance (usually, a bright, cheerful glance); a glimpse. (Chiefly Sc.)
1594. Carew, Tasso (1881), 9. 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. Lett., 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.
3. transf. The time taken by a glance; an instant, the twinkling of an eye; = Ger. Augenblick. (Chiefly Sc.)
a. 1813. A. Wilson, Hogmenae, The liquor was brought in a blink.
1827. Scott, Two Drovers, xiii. Stay, Robin—bide 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, trans. Graah’s Greenland, 80. During the three hours we took to pass this blink, it calved about twenty times.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. v. 49. I ascended to the crow’s-nest, and saw … the ominous blink of ice ahead.
