twinkle
/ˈtwɪŋk(ə)l
/verb
1 [no object] (Of a star or light, or a shiny object) shine with a gleam that changes constantly from bright to faint: the lights twinkled in the distance...
- The stars twinkle under the bright light of the full moon.
- There are some bright new southern stars twinkling as our northern lights try to recharge their batteries.
- As he turned out the light, three bright stars twinkled above the silent house.
Synonyms
glitter, sparkle, shine, glimmer, shimmer, glint, gleam, scintillate, glisten, flicker, flash, wink, blink
literary glister
rare coruscate, fulgurate, effulge
glittering, sparkling, coruscating, glimmering, glinting, gleaming, glistening, flickering, winking;
bright, shining, brilliant
rare scintillating, scintillant, refulgent, effulgent, fulgent, nitid, luculent
1.1(Of a person’s eyes) sparkle, especially with amusement: the smile made her face crease and her eyes twinkle...
- He's sitting there, one eyebrow raised, his beautiful eyes twinkling with amusement.
- ‘Look’, he said, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement.
- She looks at Jonnie, with eyes twinkling in amusement.
1.2Smile so that one’s eyes sparkle: ‘Aha!’ he said, twinkling at her...
- He stood with his arms folded and head cocked to one side, twinkling at me.
- When I asked if he knew the location of the real Stone of Destiny he smiled, twinkled mischievously, and said all would be revealed in the fullness of time.
- Take those tapes of Ronald Reagan's political speeches and memoirs, in which he smiled and twinkled and said not very much at all.
2 [no object, with adverbial] (Of a person’s feet) move lightly and rapidly: his sandalled feet twinkled over the ground...
- The famous Gallowglass Ceili Band will provide the music with some lively tunes to get the toes twinkling.
- Playing the ball late, his feet started to twinkle.
- As principal dancer with the English National Ballet, her toes have to twinkle for a living.
Synonyms
run lightly, dart, dance, skip, flit, glide
noun
1A sparkle or gleam in a person’s eyes: she looked at me with a grin and a twinkle in her eye...
- The familiar twinkle danced in her sparkling brown eyes.
- A grin cracked across the man's stony face, and a twinkle gleamed from his eyes.
- I saw a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and he waved the salad.
Synonyms
glitter, sparkle, twinkling, glimmer, shimmer, glint, gleam, flicker, dazzle, flash, wink, blink
rare scintillation, coruscation, fulguration
1.1A light which appears continually to grow brighter and fainter: the distant twinkle of the lights...
- The twinkle of light began to grow and divide, until Peter could see a myriad of bright lights just up ahead.
- Tired twinkles of light came through the fissures in the roof tiles and a small window in the back wall.
- The stars serenely encased the green-and-brown planet in their milky twinkle, lighting up all the oceans with a crystal glow, a beautiful shine.
Derivatives
twinkler
- Soon, lake docks are glowing with electric twinklers and candle lamps.
- Dealing with those jumbled balls of tiny twinklers is enough to turn anyone into Scrooge.
- If you're not interested in having one for your site, and if you like my globes and twinklers, I'd love to hear from you.
twinkly
- But then she greets you with a twinkly smile and a Zsa-Zsa Gabor-esque ‘DAH-ling!’
- I adore going for walks on Christmas day, because the streets are so quiet but there's a distinctly festive feeling, with twinkly fairy-lights and decorations everywhere.
- However, it will help to align yourself with independence and stay true to your special, twinkly, mischievous-elf sort of nature.
Origin
Old English twinclian (verb), of Germanic origin.
As well as its original sense ‘to sparkle, glimmer’, twinkle also meant ‘to wink, blink the eyes’ from the 14th to the early 19th century. The meaning ‘the time taken to wink or blink’—a very short time, in other words—is just as old, but it survives only as in the twinkling of an eye, ‘very quickly’. This is probably because the phrase appears in various passages in the Bible, including Corinthians: ‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.’ A similar expression containing the same idea is in the blink of an eye.
Rhymes
- chastely
- chasten
- chastener
- chasteness
- chaste tree
- chastise
- chastisement
- chastiser
- chastity
- chastity belt
- chasuble
- chat
- chatbot
- chateau
- chateaubriand
- Chateaubriand, François-René
- chateau cardboard
- Chateau-Thierry
- chatelain
- chatelaine
- chat group
- Chatham, 1st Earl of
- Chatham House Rule
- Chatham Islands
- chatline