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Shine vs Blink - What's the difference?

shine | blink | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between shine and blink

is that shine is to emit light while blink is to close and reopen both eyes quickly.

As nouns the difference between shine and blink

is that shine is brightness from a source of light while blink is the act of very quickly closing both eyes and opening them again.

shine

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) shinen, schinen (preterite schon, past participle schinen), from (etyl) . Cognate with West Frisian skine, skyne, Low German schienen, Dutch schijnen, German scheinen, Danish skinne, Swedish skina. In Middle English the most standard forms are[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED39953]: * present: sh?nen * simple past: (singular) sh?ne'', (plural) ''sh?neden * past participle: sh?ned The form sh?ned(e)'' had already appeared as an alternative past singular at this time, although only in Northern English usage. There is no recorded use of ''sh?ne as an alternative past participle in Middle English.

Verb

  • To emit light.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=20 citation , passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}
  • To reflect light.
  • To distinguish oneself; to excel.
  • * 1867 , Frederick William Robinson, No Man's Friend , Harper & Brothers, page 91:
  • “ I was grateful to you for giving him a year’s schooling—where he shined' at it—and for putting him as a clerk in your counting-house, where he ' shined still more.”
  • * '>citation
  • It prompted an exchange of substitutions as Jermain Defoe replaced Palacios and Javier Hernandez came on for Berbatov, who had failed to shine against his former club.
  • To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
  • * Spenser
  • So proud she shined in her princely state.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.
  • To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Few are qualified to shine in company; but it in most men's power to be agreeable.
  • To be immediately apparent.
  • To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).
  • * 2007 , David Lynn Goleman, Legend: An Event Group Thriller , St. Martin’s Press (2008), ISBN 978-0-312-94595-7, page 318:
  • As Jenks shined the large spotlight on the water, he saw a few bubbles and four long wakes leading away from an expanding circle of blood.
  • To cause to shine, as a light.
  • * (Francis Bacon)
  • He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally.
  • (US) To make bright; to cause to shine by reflected light.
  • (Bartlett)
    Synonyms
    * (to emit light) beam, glow, radiate * (to reflect light) gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, reflect * (to distinguish oneself) excel * (to make smooth and shiny by rubbing) wax, buff, polish, furbish, burnish
    Coordinate terms
    * (to emit light) beam, flash, glare, glimmer, shimmer, twinkle
    Derived terms
    * beshine * rise and shine * take a shine to

    Noun

    (-)
  • Brightness from a source of light.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • the distant shine of the celestial city
  • Brightness from reflected light.
  • Excellence in quality or appearance.
  • Shoeshine.
  • Sunshine.
  • * Dryden
  • be it fair or foul, or rain or shine
  • (slang) Moonshine.
  • (cricket) The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
  • (slang) A liking for a person; a fancy.
  • She's certainly taken a shine to you.
  • (archaic, slang) A caper; an antic; a row.
  • Synonyms
    * (brightness from a source of light) effulgence, radiance, radiancy, refulgence, refulgency * (brightness from reflected light) luster * (excellence in quality or appearance) brilliance, splendor * (shoeshine) See shoeshine * (sunshine) See sunshine * See moonshine
    Derived terms
    * come rain or shine * fireshine * shimmer * shiner * shininess * shiny * spitshine

    Etymology 2

    From the noun (shine), or perhaps continuing (etyl) schinen (preterite schinede, past participle schined), from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (shin)
  • To cause (something) to shine; put a shine on (something); polish (something).
  • He shined my shoes until they were polished smooth and gleaming.
  • (cricket) To polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.
  • Synonyms
    * (to polish) polish, smooth, smoothen

    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