| / English Dictionary |
TWINKLING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat)
Example:
if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash
Synonyms:
blink of an eye; flash; heartbeat; instant; jiffy; New York minute; split second; trice; twinkling; wink
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("twinkling" is a kind of...):
bit; minute; mo; moment; second (an indefinitely short time)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Shining intermittently with a sparkling light
Example:
twinkling stars
Classified under:
Similar:
bright (emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb twinkle
Context examples:
These were wild and miserable thoughts, but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me and how I listened to every blast of wind as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I am vastly honoured, sir, said my father, looking suspiciously at his guest from under his shaggy eyebrows, for with that grave face and those twinkling eyes it was hard to know how to take him.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This does not seem much like joy, indeed, in me—(twinkling away a tear or two)—but it will be very trying for us to part with her, after having had her so long, and she has a dreadful headache just now, writing all the morning:—such long letters, you know, to be written to Colonel Campbell, and Mrs. Dixon.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Each man felt that he had been robbed; and the boats were hoisted in amid curses, which, if curses had power, would have settled Death Larsen for all eternity—Dead and damned for a dozen iv eternities, commented Louis, his eyes twinkling up at me as he rested from hauling taut the lashings of his boat.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
This new moon is a bouquet of beautiful twinkling stars, and it will give you a chance to show your talents to the fullest.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
“I take both your challenge and your wager,” said the man of Brabant, throwing off his jacket and glancing keenly about him with his black, twinkling eyes.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We had it in, in a twinkling, and immediately applied ourselves to carrying Mr. Micawber's idea into effect.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Professor Murray made several profound remarks to his white tie and to the water-carafe upon the table, with a humorous, twinkling aside to the silver candlestick upon his right.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then an instant later a second shout broke forth, beginning from the other side of the arena, and the faces which had been turned towards us whisked round, so that in a twinkling the whole foreground changed from white to dark.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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