blink of an eye

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

blink of an eye (usually uncountable, plural blinks of an eye)

1. (idiomatic) A moment (a very short period of time).

   Synonyms: bat of an eye, eyeblink; see also Thesaurus:moment

   Just a blink of an eye later, he was gone.

   • 2002, Iron & Wine (lyrics and music), “Upward Over the Mountain”, in The Creek Drank the Cradle‎^[1]:

     Mother, remember the blink of an eye / When I breathed through your body?

   • 2020, “Ready For More”, in Open up your head, performed by Sea Girls:

     In the blink of an eye it just all slips away

Derived terms

• in the blink of an eye

Translations

moment (a very short period of time)

• Afrikaans: oomblik (af)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眨眼 (zh) (zhǎyǎn), 瞬間／瞬间 (zh) (shùnjiān)

• Danish: øjeblik (da) n
• Dutch: ogenblik (nl) n
• Finnish: silmänräpäys (fi)
• French: clin d’œil (fr) m
• German: Augenblick (de) m, Wimpernschlag (de) m, Augenschlag m
• Hungarian: szempillantás (hu)
• Italian: batter d'occhio m, batter d'occhi m, battito di ciglia m
• Japanese: あっという間 (ja) (あっというま, a-tto iu ma)
• Low German:

  German Low German: Ogenblick m

• Maori: matakarapa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: øyeblikk (no) n

  Nynorsk: augeblikk n, augneblikk n, augeblink n, augneblink n, augeblunk n, augneblunk n

• Polish: okamgnienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: piscar de olhos m
• Romanian: clipă (ro) f, clipită (ro) f
• Russian: мгнове́ние о́ка (ru) n (mgnovénije óka), мгнове́ние (ru) n (mgnovénije)
• Swedish: ögonblick (sv) n
• Turkish: an (tr)
• Yiddish: אויגנבליק (yi) m (oygnblik)