Nictitation

//nɪktɪˈteɪʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Winking, blinking countable, uncountable

    "I saw a couple, later identified for me as Mr Colt, a local lawyer, and his wife, whose blundering Cadillac half entered my driveway before retreating in a flurry of luminous nictitation."

  2. 2
    a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly wordnet

Example

More examples

"I saw a couple, later identified for me as Mr Colt, a local lawyer, and his wife, whose blundering Cadillac half entered my driveway before retreating in a flurry of luminous nictitation."

Etymology

From nictitate.

Related phrases

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