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Blink vs Blank - What's the difference?

blink | blank |

As verbs the difference between blink and blank

is that blink is to close and reopen both eyes quickly while blank is to make void; to erase.

As nouns the difference between blink and blank

is that blink is the act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again while blank is a cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.

As an adjective blank is

white or pale; without colour.

blink

English

Verb

  • To close and reopen both eyes quickly.
  • The loser in the staring game is the person who blinks first.
  • To flash headlights on a car at.
  • An urban legend claims that gang members will attack anyone who blinks them.
  • To send a signal with a lighting device.
  • Don't come to the door until I blink twice.
  • To flash on and off at regular intervals.
  • The blinking text on the screen was distracting.
  • (hyperbole) 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 .
  • To shut out of sight; to evade; to shirk.
  • to blink the question
  • (Scotland) To trick; to deceive.
  • (Jamieson)
  • To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • One eye was blinking , and one leg was lame.
  • To see with the eyes half shut, or indistinctly and with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
  • To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.
  • * Wordsworth
  • The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink .
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • The sun blinked fair on pool and stream.
  • To turn slightly sour, or blinky, as beer, milk, etc.
  • (label) To teleport, mostly for short distances
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.
  • (figuratively) The time needed to close and reopen one's eyes.
  • (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.
  • A glimpse or glance.
  • * Bishop Hall
  • This is the first blink that ever I had of him.
  • (UK, dialect) gleam; glimmer; sparkle
  • * Wordsworth
  • Not a blink of light was there.
    (Sir Walter Scott)
  • (nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink
  • (sports, in the plural) Boughs cast where deer are to pass, in order to turn or check them.
  • (label) An ability that allows teleporting, mostly for short distances
  • blank

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
  • * Milton
  • To the blank moon / Her office they prescribed.
  • Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 27 , author=Mike Henson , title=Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank .}}
  • (figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
  • a blank''' desert; a '''blank''' wall; '''blank unconsciousness
  • Absolute; downright; unmixed; sheer.
  • blank terror
  • Without expression.
  • Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
  • Utterly confounded or discomfited.
  • * Milton
  • Adam astonied stood, and blank .
  • Empty; void; without result; fruitless.
  • a blank day
  • Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration. (rfex)
  • Descendants

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
  • An empty space; a void, as on a paper, or in one's memory.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I cannot write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
  • * Hallam
  • From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
  • * George Eliot
  • I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank .
  • A space to be filled in on a form or template.
  • A paper without marks or characters, or with space left for writing; a ballot, form, contract, etc. that has not yet been filled in.
  • * Palfrey
  • The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank .
  • A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
  • * Dryden
  • In Fortune's lottery lies / A heap of blanks , like this, for one small prize.
  • (archaic) A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.
  • (Nares)
  • (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
  • (dominoes) A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the double blank"; the six blank." In blank, with an essential portion to be supplied by another; as, to make out a check in blank.
  • The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
  • The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye.
  • Aim; shot; range.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I have stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech.
  • (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
  • Synonyms

    * (sense, bullet that doesn't harm) blank cartridge, blank bullet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make void; to erase.
  • I blanked out my previous entry.
  • (slang) To ignore.
  • She blanked me for no reason.
  • To prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.
  • The team was blanked .
  • To become blank.
  • Usage notes

    * Almost any sense of this can occur with (out). See (blank out).

    Derived terms

    * blank canvas * blank check * blank end * blankly * blankness * blank out * blank verse ----