Library / English Dictionary

TWINKLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Merriment expressed by a brightness or gleam or animation of countenance

Example:

there's a perpetual twinkle in his eyes

Synonyms:

light; spark; sparkle; twinkle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("twinkle" is a kind of...):

verve; vitality (an energetic style)

aspect; expression; face; facial expression; look (the feelings expressed on a person's face)

Derivation:

twinkly (smiling with happiness or optimism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash

Synonyms:

scintillation; sparkling; twinkle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("twinkle" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Derivation:

twinkle (gleam or glow intermittently)

twinkle (emit or reflect light in a flickering manner)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gleam or glow intermittently

Example:

The lights were flashing

Synonyms:

blink; flash; twinkle; wink; winkle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "twinkle" is one way to...):

radiate (cause to be seen by emitting light as if in rays)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "twinkle"):

flick; flicker (flash intermittently)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sentence examples:

Lights twinkle on the horizon

The horizon is twinkleing with lights

Derivation:

twinkle (a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash)

twinkler (an object that emits or reflects light in an intermittent flickering manner)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Emit or reflect light in a flickering manner

Example:

Does a constellation twinkle more brightly than a single star?

Synonyms:

scintillate; twinkle; winkle

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "twinkle" is one way to...):

beam; shine (emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light)

Verb group:

scintillate (give off)

Domain category:

celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

The coins twinkle

Derivation:

twinkle (a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash)

twinkler (an object that emits or reflects light in an intermittent flickering manner)

Credits

 Context examples: 

All England waved her gladness by day and twinkled it by night.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson,” said Holmes with a mischievous twinkle.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This new moon is a bouquet of beautiful twinkling stars, and it will give you a chance to show your talents to the fullest.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

“That is a question you must settle with Mr. Van Weyden there,” he replied, nodding to me with a mischievous twinkle.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We all followed his movements with our eyes, for undoubtedly some nervousness was growing on us, and we saw a whole mass of phosphorescence, which twinkled like stars.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I looked at the sky; it was pure: a kindly star twinkled just above the chasm ridge.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These were wild and miserable thoughts, but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me and how I listened to every blast of wind as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This does not seem much like joy, indeed, in me—(twinkling away a tear or two)—but it will be very trying for us to part with her, after having had her so long, and she has a dreadful headache just now, writing all the morning:—such long letters, you know, to be written to Colonel Campbell, and Mrs. Dixon.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Here Dora shook her head, and diamonds twinkled in her eyes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)