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Blink vs Twinkle - What's the difference?

blink | twinkle |

As verbs the difference between blink and twinkle

is that blink is to close and reopen both eyes quickly while twinkle is to shine with a flickering light; to glimmer.

As nouns the difference between blink and twinkle

is that blink is the act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again while twinkle is a sparkle or glimmer of light.

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

    • Related terms

    * blinkard * blinker * blinkie * blink of an eye * on the blink * wink ----

    twinkle

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (of a source of light) to shine with a flickering light; to glimmer
    • We could see the lights of the village twinkling in the distance.
  • * Sir Isaac Newton
    • These stars do not twinkle when viewed through telescopes that have large apertures.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The western sky twinkled with stars.
  • (chiefly, of eyes) to be bright with delight
    • His shrewd little eyes twinkled roguishly.
  • to bat, blink or wink the eyes
  • * Mrs. Juliet M. Hueffer Soskice, "Reminiscences of an Artist's Granddaughter",
    • She smiled and gave a little nod and twinkled her eyes
  • * L'Estrange
    • The owl fell a moping and twinkling .
  • to flit to and fro
  • * Dorothy Gilman, "Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle"
    • A butterfly twinkled among the vines

    Synonyms

    * glimmer * scintillate * wink

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a sparkle or glimmer of light
  • * Robert De Beaugrande, "Text, Discourse, and Process",
    • Soon the rocket was out of sight, and the flame was only seen as a tiny twinkle of light.
  • a sparkle of delight in the eyes.
    • He was a rotund, jolly man with a twinkle in his eye.
  • a flitting movement
  • * James Russell Lowell, "Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell",
    • I saw the twinkle of white feet,