Native English Speaker's help needed! ?

Question

My dictionary says that "to blink a question" means

"to avoid giving a straightforward answer to a question. To evade a question"

However, as I see, it isn't even used. So have you, as a native speaker, ever heard of this idiom?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I ever heard of that expression.

Even Yahoo lists it in relatively small number of sentences.

Type that phrase in Yahoo and you get only slightly above 100 sentences, which is very low compared to other expressions.

Answer 2

I have heard a lot, but this is the first for the phrase you mentioned.

Answer 3

I have never heard this expression being used colloquially in many years. It is not for the lack of meeting educated people or reading as I am a University Lecturer in Language and Literature in UK.

"To blink at a question" would mean to ignore it, to pretend ignorance, or to be so startled by a question that you look it repeatedly because you cannot believe what it is asking, or you cannot understand it.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/blink

"to blink a question" can mean "To refuse to recognize or face" a question

http://www.answers.com/topic/blink

but it is a very rare use.

Answer 4

never, sorry

Answer 5

I'm 56 and have never heard it used.

Answer 6

It's the first time I've heard that one, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't in more common use somewhere. But then, that would seem to beg the question "where?"... It's also one that I would have had to think twice about to understand.

There is also the possibility that it is only used in writing, or that if it was used colloquially, it was long enough ago that it just isn't anymore. Language is, after all, constantly evolving, as more recent changes in the meanings of some words demonstrate.

A google search for the phrase "blink the question" revealed many more hits than the yahoo search someone else did, and starting with the first link on the second page of hits (at least for me, it was Archaeologia Cambrensis) you can see that the phrase has indeed been used in literature that dates at least as far back as the mid-1800's.

Answer 7

I've never heard of that saying.

Answer 8

i've never heard that before