What does "nictitating" mean?

present participle and gerund of nictitate

What is a synonym for "nictitating"?

Common synonyms include: nictitant.

Pronounced //ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ//.

//ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Verb

1
present participle and gerund of nictitate form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1
winking, blinking
"But she gave me only a dry look. A blink crossed the table. It even seemed to come from the bottom of her eye upward, like a nictitating membrane."

"But she gave me only a dry look. A blink crossed the table. It even seemed to come from the bottom of her eye upward, like a nictitating membrane."

From the past participle stem of Latin nictitō, frequentative form of nictō (“I wink”) (see English nictate).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.