different between blink vs wink

English

Etymology

From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English *blincan (suggested by causative verb blen?an (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkan?, a variant of *bl?kan? (“to gleam, shine”). Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

blink (third-person singular simple present blinks, present participle blinking, simple past and past participle blinked)

1. (intransitive) To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
   1. (transitive) To close and reopen one's eyes to remove (something) from on or around the eyes.

   2. To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
   3. To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
   4. To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
      • 1800, William Wordsworth, The Pet-Lamb

        The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink.
2. To flash on and off at regular intervals.
   1. To flash headlights on a car at.

   2. To send a signal with a lighting device.

3. (hyperbolic) To perform the smallest action that could solicit a response.
   • 1980, Billy Joel, “Don't Ask Me Why”, Glass Houses, Columbia Records

     All the waiters in your grand cafe / Leave their tables when you blink.

4. (transitive) To shut out of sight; to evade; to shirk.

5. (Scotland) To trick; to deceive.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)

6. To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
7. (science fiction, video games) To teleport, mostly for short distances.

Synonyms

• (close and open both eyes quickly): nictitate

Translations

Noun

blink (plural blinks)

1. The act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.
2. (figuratively) The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
3. (computing) A text formatting feature that causes text to disappear and reappear as a form of visual emphasis.
   • 2007, Cheryl D. Wise, Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web: The Basics and Beyond (page 150)

     I can think of no good reason to use blink because blinking text and images are annoying, they mark the creator as an amateur, and they have poor browser support.

4. A glimpse or glance.

   • This is the first blink that ever I had of him.

5. (Britain, dialect) gleam; glimmer; sparkle
   • 1835, William Wordsworth, Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle

     Not a blink of light was there.
6. (nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink
7. (sports, in the plural) Boughs cast where deer are to pass, in order to turn or check them.
8. (video games) An ability that allows teleporting, mostly for short distances

Related terms

Translations

Danish

Verb

blink

1. imperative of blinke

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

blink

1. first-person singular present indicative of blinken
2. imperative of blinken

German

Verb

blink

1. singular imperative of blinken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of blinken

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb blinke

Pronunciation

Noun

blink m (definite singular blinken, indefinite plural blinker, definite plural blinkene)

1. a target, bullseye

Synonyms

• skyteskive

Derived terms

• midt i blinken

Noun

blink n

1. lightning

Derived terms

• blinklys

See also

• lynglimt

Verb

blink

1. imperative of blinke

References

• “blink” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb blinke

Noun

blink m (definite singular blinken, indefinite plural blinkar, definite plural blinkane)

1. a target, bullseye

Synonyms

• skyteskive

Derived terms

• augneblink

Verb

blink

1. imperative of blinka

References

• “blink” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English winken (strong verb) and Middle English winken (weak verb), from Old English *wincan (strong verb) and wincian (“to wink, make a sign, close the eyes, blink”, weak verb), from Proto-Germanic *winkan? (“to move side to side, sway”), *wink?n (“to close one's eyes”), from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”). Cognate with Middle Low German winken (“to blink, wink”), German winken (“to nod, beckon, make a sign”). Related also to Saterland Frisian wäänke, Dutch wenken (“to beckon, motion”), Latin vacillare (“sway”), Lithuanian véngti (“to swerve, avoid”), Albanian vang (“tire, felloe”), Sanskrit ?????? (vañcati, “he swaggers”).

Verb

wink (third-person singular simple present winks, present participle winking, simple past and past participle winked)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To close one's eyes in sleep.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 43:

     When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,

     For all the day they view things unrespected;

     But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,

     And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.

2. (intransitive) To close one's eyes.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis:

     Art thou ashamed to kiss? then wink again,

     And I will wink; so shall the day seem night […]

   • 1816, Walter Scott, The Black Dwarf, Chapter the Fifth:

     I kept my eyes shut, after once glancing at him; and, I protest, I thought I saw him still, though I winked as close as ever I could.

3. (intransitive) Usually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) connive, shut one's eyes

   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious

     Therefore the scripture represents wicked men as without understanding […] they are not blind; but they wink; […] though they know God, yet they do not glorify him as God […]

   • 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, § 79:

     But whenever obstinacy, which is an open defiance, appears, that cannot be winked at, or neglected, but must, in the first instance, be subdued and mastered; only care must be had, that we mistake not ; and we must be sure it is obstinacy, and nothing else.

4. (intransitive) To close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.
   • 1861 George, Silas Marner, Chapter VI:

     The pipes began to be puffed in a silence which had an air of severity; the more important customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire, staring at each other as if a bet were depending on the first man who ‘’’winked’’’ […]

5. (transitive, intransitive) To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy. (When transitive, the object may be the eye being winked, or the message being conveyed.)
   • 1912, Edwin L. Sabin, With Carson and Frémont, Chapter VIII:

     Oliver saw Kit Carson wink at the lieutenant and Lucien Maxwell, as the speech reached them, and it was evident that these three leaders did not believe the Indian tales. Consequently he himself decided that the reports of "evil spirits" awaiting were all bosh.

6. (intransitive) To gleam fitfully or intermitently; to twinkle; to flicker.
   • 1899, Will T. Whitlock, "The Circumflex," Overland Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, second series:

     Down in the bottoms the sycamore and cottonwood are casting off their yellowing leaves; but the white oak will cling to her gorgeous finery till the blizzard comes shrieking up the gulch to wrest it from her, or until the winking prairie-fire leaps among her branches, and mounting upward to the highest limbs, finally leaves the vain beauty a blackened skeleton.

   • 1920, Katherine Mansfield, Letter to Richard Murray (ca. September 19), Vincent O. Sullivan & Margaret Scott, The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Vol. 4 (1996):

     Her kitchen is a series of Still Lives; the copper pans wink on the walls.

Synonyms

• nictitate

Translations

Noun

wink (plural winks)

1. An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
2. A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 25

     I couldn't bear to leave him where he is. I shouldn't sleep a wink for thinking of him.
3. A brief time; an instant.
4. The smallest possible amount.
   • 1899, Jack London, "The Men of Forty-Nine: 'Malemute Kid" Deals with a Duel," Overland Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, second series:

     It’s many’s the time I shot the selfsame rifiie before, and it’s many ’s the time after, but niver a wink of the same have I seen. 'T was the sight of a lifetime.

5. A subtle allusion.

Derived terms

• nudge nudge wink wink
• wink murder

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

wink (plural winks)

1. A disc used in the game of tiddlywinks.

Etymology 3

Clipping of periwinkle.

Noun

wink (plural winks)

1. (Chiefly British) Periwinkle.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v??k/

Verb

wink

1. singular imperative of winken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of winken