[f. TWINKLE v.1 + -ING1.] The action of TWINKLE v.1
1. The action of shining with tremulous or faint radiance; scintillation; † glimmering. Also transf. and fig.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxxvii. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 174 b/2. In twinkelinge and in liȝt [electrum] schyneþ more clere þan oþer metal.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v., in Ashm., Theatr. Chem. Brit. (1652), 64. Twinckling and glittering as in Magnetia is.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 8. Many men do make a difference of them by twinkelinge, affirming that the Fixed starres doo twinkle, and not the Planetes.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., vii. § 3 (1643), 325. The twinkling of the starres is the vibration or trembling of their light.
1795. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 36. There is only a dim twinkling of twilight for an hour or two in the middle of the day.
1806. Wordsw., Sonn., To Sleep. O gentle Sleep! do they belong to thee, These twinklings of oblivion?
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxvi. These [salmon] the party in the boat detected by the slightest indications; the twinkling of a fin, the rising of an air-bell.
1853. Herschel, Pop. Lect. Sc., vii. § 117 (1873), 336. The twinkling or scintillation of the stars partakes … of the nature of a phænomenon of diffraction.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyssey, VIII. 123. Odysseus gazed at the twinklings of the feet.
2. The action or an act of winking; nictitation; also fig. Obs. exc. as in 3.
a. 1300. in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.), 519/1. Þoruȝ twinklingues of heore eyȝen Heore soules beon alle for lore.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. xv. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 111 b/2. Liȝtnynge … comeþ oute of his moder as þe twinkelinge of an yȝe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 505/2. Twynkelynge, of the eye, conniventia.
1530. Palsgr., 283/2. Twynclyng of an eye, cilement, clin doeil.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXII. x. An ague … accompanied with head-ach and much twinkling or inordinat palpitation of the eyes.
1609. Bible (Douay), Isa. iii. 16. The daughters of Sion … have walked with stretched out necke, and went with twinglings of eies.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 458. Being euery second or third day attended with the twinckling of an eye, and my sustenance agreeable to my attendance, my body grew exceeding debile and infirme.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. Disc. ix. 122. The first motions,… the twincklings of the eye as the Philosophers call them.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 145. The Eyes in squinting, the Eye-lids in twinkling.
1800. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1837), I. 252. He can extricate himself by the twinkling of an eye if he wishes it.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), IV. 462. Twinkling or winking of the eyes is performed every minute without our thinking of it.
3. The time taken in winking the eye; a very brief period; a moment, an instant. Chiefly in phrases: see b, c, d.
1303. [see b.].
c. 1374. Chaucer, Compl. Mars, 222. Her Ioy … Ne lasteth not the twynkelyng of an eye.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxix. [xxx.] 5. His wrath endureth but the twincklinge of an eye.
1557. Traheron, Expos. John i H j b. He shewed not him selfe the twinckling of an eye, and so vanished awaie.
1644. Digby, Nat. Soul, ix. § 10. 421. He scorneth for this litle twinckling of his life, to take any present paines … to auoyde being ill.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. ii. 114. I will never quit thee for the twinkling of an eye.
b. In the twinkling of an eye, in an instant; formerly also † in (a), with (a or the) twinkling of an eye (in quot. 1390 of a look) (obs.).
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 9179. Yn twynkelyng of an ye, Yn-to þe cherche gun þey flye.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xxxvii. 106. In a twynglyng of an ece.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lxxii. 19. In þe twinkeling of an eigh þai fal downe.
c. 1380. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.), 673. Wiþ a twynklyng of an eiþe.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 144. In a twinklinge of a lok His mannes forme aȝein he tok.
1483. Caxton, Cato, E v b. In the twynklyng of an eye. Ibid. (c. 1489), Sonnes of Aymon, xxviii. 588. The corps … was broughte in to the carte agayne wyth the twynkeling of an eye.
1508. Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 235. In twynkling of ane eye to schip thai went.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 27. With twingling [v.r. twinkling] of ane eye anone, God sall the tak.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy. (1903), IV. 250. In the very twinckling of an eye, both shippe and men were all cast away.
1792. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 11. This clergy would lose,… in the twinkling of an eye, the little remains of influence which they yet retain.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. iv. 52. A book, a picture, a memory, puts us, in the twinkling of an eye, in the midst of the most enchanting solitudes.
1860. Yonkers Examiner, 5 Jan., 2/3. We can give the entire Union a grand specific for the stoppage of the disease in the twinkling of an eye.
1904. Times, 7 Sept., 7/4. Events … transformed Japan … in the twinkling of an eye … into a modern State.
c. In a twinkling († at a, in the twinkling).
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 22. At a twinckling thee swelling surges he calmed.
1609. Ev. Woman in Hum., I. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Heere and there in the twinckling.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., V. v. An old Hargubuzier … Could prime his poulder, and give fire and hit, All in a twinckling.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, II. i. I’ll … be with you again in a twinkling.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 151. The liquor was out of sight in a twinkling.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag., xiii. (1824), 224. The stoutest line-of-battle ship … may be … decomposed in a twinkling.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 182. In a twinkling the pack is half a field away.
d. With (usually humorous) substitution: see quots.
1660, 1676. [see BEDSTAFF].
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 40 (1713), II. 9. This Letter would alone have done it in the twinkling of a Broomstick.
1695. Congreve, Love for L., II. v. I have known an astrologer made a cuckold in the twinkling of a star.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Declam. Adverts, Wks. 1730, I. 40. All Thessaly had in the twinkling of a Shoeing-horn been certainly undermin’d by Lobsters.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 57. 2/2. I’ll do it in the twinkling of a Bedstaff.
1819. Blackw. Mag., V. 718. He went off in the twinkling of a bed post. Ibid. (1821), IX. 134. In the twinkling of a fan.
1853. Reade, Peg Woff., iv. 106. You can … master a play in the twinkling of a tea-cup.
4. attrib.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 68. In a twinkling trice To goe to work.
Twinkling vbl. sb.2: see TWINKLE v.2
