twinkle, twinkelen, twincle

i. [A. S. IMG:content-1612.png:[blocks in formation] 1. To wink; to open and shut the eyes rapidly. "He twincleth with the eghen."-Wycliffe: Prov. vi. 13. 2. To gleam, to sparkle. (Said of the eye.) "His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright, As don the steeres in a frosty night." Chaucer: C. T. (Prol.), 250. IMG:content-1613.png:[blocks in formation] twinkling twin-kling, *twinc-kling, pr. par., a. & s. [TWINKLE, v.] A. & B. As pr. par. & particip. adj.: (See the verb.) C. As substantive: 1. The act of one who or of that which twinkles; a wink. "Much twinkling or inordinate palpitation of the eyes." P. Holland: Pliny , bk. xxxii., ch. x. 2. The time taken up in winking the eye; a moment, an instant. "And so in the very twinckling of an eye, both ship and men were all cast away." -Hackluyt : Voyages , i. 612. Either absolutely, or followed, as in the example, by of an eye .