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Synonyms

blinking

American  
[bling-king] / ˈblɪŋ kɪŋ /

adjective

Chiefly British.

  1. (used as an intensifier).

    He's a blinking idiot.
blinking British  
/ ˈblɪŋkɪŋ /

adjective

  1. informal (intensifier)

    a blinking fool

    a blinking good film
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • blinkingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of blinking

First recorded in 1910–15; blink + -ing 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Following more than 300 hours of searching, divers finally spotted the blinking of the miner's torch light, which Zapata had turned on and off to alert them to his location.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

The “personal computers” of the day were hobbyists’ kits, contraptions that arrived in pieces, with output displays that were limited to blinking red lights.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

The door groaned open, and out crawled Ernesto, blinking into the warm Southern California air.

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2026

“Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 1, 2026

I sat down blinking at knives, forks, tablecloth—had I once eaten like this, every day in the year?

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.