Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a seller of spectacles.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 415: Alf Palmer – a chiv, blink, and snell-fencer.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 9: Blink Fencer, an optician; one who sells spectacles.
1891		Yorks. Eve. Post 15 Apr. 1/7: [The] variety of occupations adopted by tramps is enormous [...] A ‘blink fencer’ sells spectacles.
1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 273: Blink-fencer – Spectacle seller.

(Aus.) cigarette stubs, picked up from the gutter and either relit or recombined in a new ‘roll-your-own’.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.

to become impoverished.

1912

Ade Knocking the Neighbors 119: If he tried to manipulate more than Two Dollars at one time, he would go Blink.

immediately, very quickly.

1935		in Partridge DSUE (1984) 95/1: Must have died like a blink.
1953		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 71: We’ll have to pedal like blinko to get back to school by four o’clock.

1. (orig. US) malfunctioning, working badly, damaged [the blinking of electric lights that signalled a ‘short’ or similar malfunction].

1900		A.H. Lewis ‘The Wedding’ in Sandburrs 173: She has him on d’blink from d’jump.
1912		Mansfield News (OH) 7 Dec. 10?/ 3: It was a 10 to 1 shot that it [i.e. slang] would put the little duffers’ morals on the blink.
1920		Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang Aug. 4: Until the ‘prohis’ bore down, the word ‘country club’ meant one of the nightly places of revelry [...] These places are somewhat on the blink now.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 204: My Uncle Thomas is a cove who made a colossal pile of money out in the East, but in doing so put his digestion on the blink.
1931		E. Pound letter 27 Mar. in Paige (1971) 233: Bourgeois litcherchoor is pretty well on the blink.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 415: Man gits outta woik, tho’, goes off on a Goddam blink.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 169: The deserted radio at the near end that had been on the blink now since a week before last Payday.
1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 50: What I had interpreted as a love light had merely been a gasser on the blink.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 166: I think my ears are on the blink, Fats.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 122: Oh dear the telly’s on the blink.
1999		T. Hill Underground 19: The monitors have been on the blink all day.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 98: The girl behind the counter told me the jukebox was on the blink.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 223: The hoover was on the blink.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 279: Radiators had gone on the blink; some pipe had burst with the cold.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 396: Sparky’s van was always breaking down. ‘Not on the blink again,’ sighed an exasperated Betsy.

2. of a person, ill or dead.

1903		Eve. World (NY) 10 Feb. 11/2: I feel on the blin today [...] Sat up all night playing poker.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. viii: It’s beautiful billiards all right for the time being, but I always feel so on the blink the next morning.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: On the blink, not feeling well; out of sorts.
1944		G. Fowler Good Night, Sweet Prince 259: [from John Barrymore’s diary 1926] It had pretty nearly put me on the blink.

3. (US, also upon the blink) impoverished, penniless; note extrapolation in cit. 1914 combining blink with on the fritz under fritz n.² .

1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Aerial Performer’ in Ade’s Fables 208: The Market had gone Blooey. [...] The Whole List was on the Blinkety Fritz.
1920		H.C. Witwer Kid Scanlon 332: A couple of those would put the company on the blink, and I lose a ten-year contract at ample money a year.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Stew-Bum’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 136: ’Scuse me, pard, for hornin’ in, but I’m upon the blink. / Ain’t got a jitney in me kick, and dyin’ for a drink.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. (US Und.) working as a fake ‘blind beggar’ [the ‘blind’ man’s surreptitious blinking].

1956

N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 143: You go on the blink with me and I give you my word of honor [...] the day we get a stake we throw away the glasses.

(UK Und.) sore eyes.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(US) to cause problems for.

1917

in H. Crane Complete Poems and Sel. Letters (2006) 188: The war seems to put the blink on everything in the confectionary line, but you will have to suffer no worse than the rest.

(US) extremely small, insignificant.

a.2003

David Broza ‘Watching The World (Whirl ’Round)’ 🎵 I wasn’t too lazy / to lay in bed / or blink once / in a two blink town / Just one step / on the sane side of crazy.

(US) asleep.

1996

(con. late 19C) E. West Saloon on the Rocky Mountain 95: A miner might [...] proceed to a restaurant for ‘muk-a-muk’ (food and refreshment) and a ‘torch’ (smoke) before he ‘went under the blinks’ (slept).