different between scintillate vs blink

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin scintill?tus, past participle of scintill?re (“to sparkle, glitter, gleam, flash”), from scintilla (“a spark”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?nt?le?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?nt?le?t/
• Hyphenation: scin?til?late

Verb

scintillate (third-person singular simple present scintillates, present participle scintillating, simple past and past participle scintillated)

1. (intransitive) To give off sparks; to shine as if emanating sparks; to twinkle or glow.
   1. (astronomy) Of a star or other celestial body: to vary rapidly in brightness; to twinkle.
   2. (nuclear physics) Especially of a phosphor: to emit a flash of light upon absorbing ionizing radiation.
2. (transitive, now rare) To throw off like sparks.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, “Mr. Arabin”, in Barchester Towers: In Three Volumes, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, OCLC 911659634; republished as Barchester Towers. [...] In Two Volumes (Hand and Pocket Library; II), volume I, New York, N.Y.: Dick & Fitzgerald, 18 Ann Street, [1860], OCLC 863553483, page 201:

     As a boy young Arabin took up the cudgels on the side of the Tractarians, and at Oxford he sat for a while at the feet of the great [John Henry] Newman. To this cause he lent all his faculties. For it he concocted verses, for it he made speeches, for it he scintillated the brightest sparks of his quiet wit.

Derived terms

• scintillating (adjective)
• scintillation
• scintillator

Related terms

• scintilla
• stencil
• tinsel

Translations

Further reading

• scintillate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• scintillate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• scintillate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Italian

Verb

scintillate

1. second-person plural present and imperative of scintillare

Latin

Verb

scintill?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of scintill?

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.