twink n.1
1. a moment, a very brief period of time; usu. as in a twink, in a very short time.
![]() | Tempest IV i: ari.: Presently? pro.: Ay with a twink. ari.: Before you can say ‘Come,’ and ‘Go.’. | |
![]() | Soldier’s Fortune IV iii: I’ll only bolt the door [...] that he may be safe, and be with you in a twinkle. | |
![]() | Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 540: Go drub yon’ lousy rogues, and then / We’ll in a twink be back again. | |
![]() | Caleb Williams (1966) 235: And he made a hell of a rumpus and sent away Kit to prison in a twinky. | |
![]() | Works (1801) V 264: He never wanted news at a pinch; would spring from Dan to Bersheba in a twink. | ‘Tales of Hoy’|
![]() | Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 18/1: In a twinkle someone tuned off the gas. | |
![]() | ‘Career of a Scapegrace’ in Leicester Chron. 10 May 12/1: If you aren’t off in a twink I’ll half drown you. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 6/1: The fashionable trouser is an uncanny thing [...], and any clever young man who owns a thimble and a packing needle could make himself a pair of fashionable continuations in two twinkles. | |
![]() | Truth (Sydney) 5 May 6/1: Harry Raynor threw the colt and tied him up in a twinkle. |
2. (US) a diamond ring.
![]() | Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/4: I was just $1,200 on the blut — $700 in the yellow papers, a $300 third-finger twink, and a $200 search-glim. |