[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. Looking with twinkling or half-open eyelids; winking; weak-eyed.
1568. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 29. A Furious God: an Archer blincking boy.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ix. 54. The portrait of a blinking idiot.
1718. Pope, Iliad, II. 264. One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 39. Stood with blinking gaze Before a fire’s unsteady blaze.
b. Sc. Glancing pleasantly.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 90. Blinkin daft Barbara M’Leg. Ibid., II. 119. His blinkan eye and gate sae free.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xvii. Guided by one of these blinking Ganymedes.
2. Shining dimly or intermittently, twinkling, flickering.
1681. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 327. By a blinking and promiscuous light.
1785. Burns, Cotter’s Sat. Nt., iii. His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonilie.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 233. A solitary lamp to throw its blinking rays athwart his effigy.
3. Blinking Chickweed; = BLINKS 2.
1775. Lightfoot, Flora Scot. (1789), 110.
