Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Blinking |
BlinkingAdjective1. Off-and-on; "the blinking signal light". 2. Closing the eyes intermittently and rapidly; he stood blinking in the bright sunlight". 3. (used of persons) informal intensifiers; "what a bally (or blinking) nuisance"; "a bloody fool"; "a crashing bore"; "you flaming idiot". Noun1. A reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "blinking" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1596. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | An intentional periodic change in the intensity of one or more display elements or segments. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | Brief closing of the eyelids by involuntary normal periodic closing, as a protective measure, or by voluntary action. (references) |
Post & Telecom | A method of providing information by modifying the signal at its source so that the signal presentation on the display alternatively appears and disappears. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: BlinkingSynonyms: bally(a) (adj), blinking(a) (adj), bloody(a) (adj), crashing(a) (adj), flaming(a) (adj), fucking(a) (adj), blink (n), eye blink (n), nictation (n), nictitation (n), wink (n), winking (n). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: blinked (post & telecom). |
Crosswords: Blinking |
| English words defined with "blinking": bally, blink, blink away, blinker, bloody ♦ crashing ♦ flaming ♦ palpebration ♦ trafficator, turn indicator, turn signal ♦ wink, winking. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "blinking": Troll-O-Meter. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The brutal bungalow of the Blinking Buzzards, a bold bad bunch of blood-thirsty bandits who would break into a bank, blow a battleship to bits or beat up a blue eyed baby blonde (The 'High Sign'; writing credit: Edward F. Cline; Buster Keaton) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | And at last the Professor opened his eyes, and sat up, blinking at us with eyes of utter bewilderment |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The blinking of a dim flashlight played on the road |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The first symptoms may be uncontrollable blinking. (references) | |
Communication may be possible with blinking eye movements. (references) | ||
BEB begins gradually with occasional eye blinking and/or irritation. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Blinking" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 58.18% of the time. "Blinking" is used about 165 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 58.18% | 96 | 33,456 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 31.52% | 52 | 47,145 |
| Noun (singular) | 8.48% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Adverb (general) | 1.82% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 165 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "blinking": blinking chickweed ♦ blinking light ♦ blinking lights ♦ blinking winking. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "blinking": eye-blinking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "blinking"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i keq (bad, bad tempered, baleful, bodeful, cancerous, catty, cheesy, crook, dark, defective, dubious, evil, heavy, ill, ill disposed, ill natured, ill-conditioned, lousy, low-grade, malign, malignant, nasty, naughty, perverse, poor, punk, shady, shoddy, sinister, ugly, vicious, vile, wicked). (various references) | |
Arabic | مومض (agleam, fuliginous), ناظر بخلسة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | мъждукащ (dull), мъждукане (flicker, glimmer, glimmering), мигащ, мигане (eyewink, flashing, twinkle, wink), пренебрегване (neglect, oblivion). (various references) | |
Chinese | 眨眼睛 (Blinked). (various references) | |
Czech | sakramentský. (various references) | |
Danish | blinkning. (various references) | |
Dutch | knippersignaal, flikkeren (flare, flare up, flash, flicker, lighten). (various references) | |
Finnish | vilkutus (wave, waving, winking). (various references) | |
French | clignotant (blinker). (various references) | |
German | blinkend (blink, flashing), Blinken (blink, flash, flashing, gleam, glint, indicate, shine, signal, to flash), verflixt (blessed, blooming, confounded, confoundedly, darn, darned, shucks, tricky), verdammt (accursed, blast, blast it, blasted, bleeding, bloody, condemns, confounded, confoundedly, cursedly, dammit, damn, damn it, damned, darn, deuced, flaming, perishing, pesky, ruddy), Austastverfahren. (various references) | |
Greek | αναβοσβήσιμο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מצמוץ עין (blink, twinkle, wink, winking), קריצ" (wink, winking), עפעוף (flickering, palpebration, wink, winking). (various references) | |
Hungarian | hunyorgó. (various references) | |
Indonesian | berkelap-kelip (glimmer, glittering, twinkling), kelap-kelip (flickering). (various references) | |
Italian | lampeggiamento (heat lightning, summer lightning). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 明滅 (flickering). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | めいめつ (flickering). (various references) | |
Korean | 장 호 (blink, blinks). (various references) | |
Manx | meekey (blink, flick of eye, flicker, peep, twinkle, wink), meekagh (twinkling). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | inkingblay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | cintilação (effulgence, flashing, glint, glisten, glitter, lambency, scintillation, sparkle, sparkling, twinkle, twinkling). (various references) | |
Russian | чертовский (bally, deuced, devilish, god-awful, goddamn, helluva). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | trepćući. (various references) | |
Spanish | parpadeo (blink, flicker, flickering, nictation, nictitation, quiver, twinkle, wink, winking). (various references) | |
Swedish | blinkning (wink, winking). (various references) | |
Thai | ซึ่งกระพริบตา. (various references) | |
Turkish | lanet olası (blasted, blithering, bloody, blooming, cursed, damn, damn it, damnable, damned, darned, imprecatory, ruddy), kırpma (clip, clipping, retrenchment, shearing, winking), göz kırpma (cock of the eye, nictitation, twinkle, twinkling, winking), allah'ın cezası (bleeding, blithering, bugger, drat it, drat you, goddamn, goddamned, ungodly). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | моргання (nictation, nictitation, wink, winking), жахливий (abominable, abysmal, almighty, appalling, atrocious, awesome, awful, blood-curdling, blue, chronic, damnable, damned, deadly, desperate, deuced, devilish, dire, direful, dreadful, eerie, eery, eldritch, enormous, fearful, fearsome, ferocious, flagrant, frightening, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly, wretched). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "blinking": unblinking. (additional references) | |
Words containing "blinking": unblinkingly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Blinking" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bilainkin, Blenkarne, Blenkin, Blenning, Blicking. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "blinking" (pronounced bli"ngking) |
| 6 | -l i" ng k i ng | linking, plinking. |
| 5 | -i" ng k i ng | drinking, rethinking, shrinking, sinking, stinking, unthinking, winking. |
| 4 | -ng k i ng | banking, blanking, clanking, cranking, debunking, flanking, flunking, franking, honking, junking, nonbanking, planking, plunking, ranking, reinking, spanking, tanking, thanking, yanking. |
| 3 | -k i ng | antismoking, aching, asking, attacking, backing, backtracking, baking, balking, barking, basking, biking, bilking, blocking, bloodsucking, booking, bookmaking, braking, breaking, breathtaking, broking, Brooking, bucking, carjacking, caulking, chalking, checking, choking, chucking, clicking, cloaking, clucking, cocking, coking, cooking, corking, cornhusking, cracking, creaking, critiquing, croaking, decking, disliking, docking, dressmaking, ducking, duking, earmarking, earthshaking, eking, embarking, evoking, faking, filmmaking, flaking, flicking, flocking, forking, forsaking, freaking, frolicking, gawking, glassmaking, groundbreaking, hacking, handshaking, hardworking, harking, Hawking, heartbreaking, hijacking, hiking, hitchhiking, Hocking, homemaking, hooking, hulking, interlocking, invoking, jacking, jaywalking, jerking, joking, kayaking, kicking, knocking, lacking, lawbreaking, lawmaking, leaking, licking, liking, locking, looking, lovemaking, Lucking, lurking, making, marking, masking, matchmaking, meatpacking, metalworking, milking, mimicking, mistaking, mocking, moneymaking, moviemaking, mucking, muckraking, multitasking, networking, nitpicking, nonsmoking, overbooking, overlooking, overtaking, packing, painstaking, panicking, papermaking, parking, peacemaking, peaking, pecking, peeking, perking, picking, piggybacking, plucking, poking, politicking, provoking, quaking, quarterbacking, racking, raking, ransacking, rebuking, reeking, remaking, remarking, restocking, retaking, revoking, reworking, risking, rocking, rollicking, sacking, seeking, shaking, sharking, shirking, shocking, shrieking, shucking, sleepwalking, smacking, smirking, smoking, snaking, sneaking, soaking, socking, spacewalking, sparking, speaking, spiking, squawking, squeaking, stacking, staking, stalking, steelmaking, sticking, stockbroking, stocking, stoking, streaking, striking, stroking, sucking, sulking, tacking, taking, talking, tasking, ticking, tracking, trafficking, trekking, tricking, trucking, tucking, tweaking, undertaking, undocking, unlocking, unpacking, viking, waking, walking, whacking, wisecracking, woodworking, working, wracking, wreaking, wrecking. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-g-i-i-k-l-n-n" | |
-1 letter: bilking, inkling, kilning, linking. | |
-2 letters: biking, inking, lignin, liking, lining. | |
-3 letters: blini, blink, kinin, linin. | |
-4 letters: bilk, blin, gink, glib, kiln, king, ling, link, linn. | |
-5 letters: big, bin, gib, gin, ilk, ink, inn, kin, lib, lin, nib, nil. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-g-i-i-k-l-n-n" | |
+2 letters: blinkering, unblinking. | |
+3 letters: balkanizing, linebacking. | |
+4 letters: besprinkling, linebackings, unblinkingly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.