blinker

Anything that blinks.

Noun

  1. Anything that blinks.
    • She was a frequent blinker, always on the verge of tears.
  2. The turn signal of an automobile.

    Synonyms: directional directional signal direction indicator indicator trafficator turn indicator turn signal winker

  3. A shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side.

    Synonyms: blinder winker

  4. Whatever obstructs sight or discernment.
    • This floor let not the vulgar tread, / Who worship only what they dread: / Nor bigots who but one way see, / Through blinkers of authority - 1732, Matthew Green, Grotto:
  5. The eyelid.
  6. A black eye.
    • The next morning, Jimmy came home with a fat lip and a black eye. Flory rushed over to tend to him. “Ain't nothin'. Just a blinker... had a fight with a guy. […] - 2011, Mari Christie, Concrete Loyalties, page 419:
  7. In Conway's Game of Life, an arrangement of three cells in a row that switches between horizontal and vertical orientations in each generation.
    • The following for example, doesn't work because the spark at the top is actually a blinker, and doesn't die. Without the blinker, this object is known as an OWSS (overweight spaceship). - 1992 August 13, David Bell,...
    • 3 live cells together can yield either a blinker or a block, so these will be the most common objects formed "out of the void". - 1994 May 13, Louis Howell, “Louis Howell's question of block clearing in life (simple...
    • As Hickerson points out, a glider aimed at a faraway blinker or preblock has only 8 cells, but can be arranged to run as long as you want. - 2008 January 8, Dave Greene, “Evolutionary factor in Conway's life”, in...
  8. A situation where the light of a dab pen or vape starts blinking, which happens when the user takes an extremely long hit.
    • a double blinker (hitting blinkers on two pens simultaneously)
    • I just hit a blinker.
    • When you just hit 2 back to back blinkers off the dab pen and you trying to hold your cough around people - 2023 January 31, @GreedyAlmighty, Twitter, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2023:

Origin

Etymology tree English blink Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English blinker From blink + -er.

Forms

blinkers

Derived

blinkerdom blinker fluid nanoblinker

Verb

  1. To put blinkers on.
    • The farmer stopped to blinker his horse before riding into an area of heavy traffic.

Forms

blinkers blinkering blinkered

Related

blinkers