blick

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪk

Etymology 1

Perhaps onomatopoeic; perhaps an error for, or nonce alteration of, blink or click; perhaps a continuation of Middle English bliken (compare blicker), which may have survived in dialect despite not being attested in print for 500 years.

Verb

blick (third-person singular simple present blicks, present participle blicking, simple past and past participle blicked)

1. (transitive) To shine, gleam.
   • 1978, Michael Wilding, The Tabloid Story Pocket Book, page 82:

     Shirley Steynes Bluey took a deep breath as he entered the main street; nothing new under the sun-lamp as white pinks blicked across the street in a line of heat-glazed asterisks

   • 2006, Hugh Cook, The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster, page 646:

     The lancing sunlight blicked sharps of light from the scattering of sand on the marble of the plinth.

2. (nonce word, transitive, intransitive) To make, or cause to make, a soft, crisp sound.
   • 1988, Sheila Radley, The chief inspector's daughter, page 171:

     The recorder blicked off, and the tape hissed to the end of the reel in silence.

   • 2005, Clyde White, Garbage Angel: Sarah's Story, page 16:

     He pulled out a cigarette lighter and blicked it.

   • 2014, Lynn Russell, The sweethearts, page 231 (large print edition):

     On her first day, as she walked into work […] [s]he blicked-in at the time clock […]

Etymology 2

From German Blick (“look, glance, twinkle, flash”), from Middle High German blic, from Old High German blik, blich, from Proto-West Germanic , from Proto-Germanic *blikiz (“shine, appearance, look”).

Cognate with Dutch blik, Danish blik, Icelandic blik (“gleam, sheen”), Old English blice (“sheen, denuded site”).

Noun

blick (plural blicks)

1. The brightening or iridescence appearing on silver or gold at the end of the cupelling or refinishing process.
   • 1870, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, page 417:

     The nearer the process approaches to the “Blick,” the slower is the formation of litharge, till at last it can only be continued by a very strong fire.

   • 1874, John Arthur Phillips, Elements of Metallurgy, page 511:

     It was also found advantageous not to complete cupellations in the cupel furnace, but to stop the operation some time before the Blick, and to transfer the alloy to the refining furnace, in which cupellation is completed and the silver refined;

   • 1881, Edward John Chapman, Practical Instructions for the Determination by Furnace Assay of Gold and Silver in Rocks and Ores, page 46:

     Commonly, as it cools, it emits a sudden gleam or flash of light […] but as this gleam or “blick” is exhibited by gold as well as by silver […]

   • 1888 May, Frederick W. Clark, “Notes on Assaying of Lead, Silver, and Gold”, in Technology Quarterly, volume 1, page 338:

     When the last of the lead separates, and the button is not smaller than a pin-head, there is a brilliant play of colors, then the button becomes dull; this is known as the "blick," "brightening," "fulguration," or "coruscation."

   • 1903, William A. Macleod, Charles Walker, Metallurgical Analysis and Assaying, page 268:

     When the blick ( or coloured films ) just disappears, close the doors for a few minutes and then remove the cupels, taking the usual precautions against the button spitting.

Verb

blick (third-person singular simple present blicks, present participle blicking, simple past and past participle blicked)

1. (intransitive) Of gold or silver: To exhibit blick.
   • 1870, Karl Remigius Fresenius, System of instruction in quantitative chemical analysis, § 226, page 530:

     When the cupellation is nearly finished, a play of colors is seen, and the button [sc. of silver] suddenly brightens or “blicks,” and becomes white, and is free from lead.

   • 1881, United States. Bureau of the Mint ·, Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States, page 355:

     The English cupelling furnaces are used; the bars of rich bullion being fed continually until the silver blicks, the litharge running into small iron pots for removal.

   • 1914, Edward Garfield Mahin, Quantitative Analysis, page 483:

     As the last of the lead is oxidized the iridescence suddenly disappears and the surface brightens or “blicks."

Etymology 3

Noun

blick (plural blicks)

1. A sawed-off length of something.
   • 1832, Cornelia G. Goodrich et al. Vs. West Lumber Company, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 113:

     Witness here described many blicks of wood cut out of trees on this line showing ages of marks.

   • 1914, Frans Hugo Johansson, “No. 158,342 Short Board Production”, in The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights, page 3031:

     Method of producing short boards as boards for boxes, cases or the like, characterized by the fact that the log previous to or after the ends thereof being cut away as usual is cut into short logs or blicks of about the length of the boards to be produced,

   • 1999, Erno Rossi, White Death - Blizzard of '77, page 116:

     And we used the saw to cut down the snow in little blicks.

Etymology 4

Noun

blick (plural blicks)

1. Clipping of blicky (“pistol”).

Verb

blick (third-person singular simple present blicks, present participle blicking, simple past and past participle blicked)

1. To shoot up.
   • 2023 May 24, “Bounce”, PGF Nuk (lyrics)‎:

     Thinkin' like Roddy, got a stick in the box (Roddy)
     Hide in another car, we just blickin' the opps (Bah)

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɪk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪk

Verb

blick

1. singular imperative of blicken

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse blíkja, from Proto-Germanic *bliką (“look”), *blīkaną (“to shine, gleam”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

blick c

1. look (action of looking)
2. glance
3. gaze

Declension

Related terms

• inblick
• återblick
• blicka
• blickfång
• ögonblick