blink of an eye
35
2.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
en un abrir y cerrar de ojos
- And she's out the door and gone in the blink of an eye.
The rest went out of Africa and within the blink of an eye did that sort of stuff.
- The rest went out of Africa and within the blink of an eye did that sort of stuff.
- And he looks at them and then in a blink of an eye, he kneels down in front of them.
- It was like in the blink of an eye, it could change position and move that quickly.
- Because it's just so easy for your life to go by in the blink of an eye.
- And the manipulative quality of narcissistic relationships can leave you so confused that in the blink of an eye, you're trapped.
- And it is short and I don't care how many years you get, it is short and it is gone in the blink of an eye.
- Outside of that, I explained that if he is still technically married, things can change in the blink of an eye.
- And so, in the blink of an eye, Nice becomes Comfort, attaching herself to the familiar whilst fleeing from the unknown.
- Through days that seemed endless and years that passed with a blink of an eye, we have arrived at this very moment.
- Like I've seen people's lives change right in front of me and it is it within a blink of an eye.
- And so now, through days that seemed endless and years that passed with a blink of an eye, we have arrived at this moment.
- And so all three of them died in a in the blink of an eye to a guy driving in the influence of alcohol and drugs.
- And then in the blink of an eye they just do like some, I mean, I feel like people in general do this though, where they're really shit.
Examples
-
Things sure can change in the blink of an eye in this great game of baseball.
Blog text (17) -
Three days is just a blink of an eye.
Fiction book (2001) -
If you pick them all family, in the blink of an eye, your family will be gone.
-
"Now in what seemed like the blink of an eye, they were here."
Fiction book (2001) -
All this happened in an instant, in the blink of an eye.
Fiction book (1996) -
The world's population barely knew a war had started, but in the blink of an eye, our home was gone.
-
All this happened over a handful of decades, a mere blink of an eye in historical terms.
Fiction book (2002) -
You'll be done with this place in the blink of an eye.
Fiction book (2002) -
And within the blink of an eye, this throne appears in Solomon's Kingdom.
-
You can change your life in the blink of an eye if you make the right decisions.
Synonyms
232
1.0
A very short moment that passes quickly
72
1.3
A very short time
72
3.7
A very short time
50
3.3
Very quickly, in almost no time
43
2.5
A very short moment when something happens
35
2.5
Very quickly in a single moment
22
4.9
A very short time like a moment
17
7.2
A very short time, just a moment
8
2.5
A very short moment of time
5
7.2
A very short moment when something happens
1
3.8
A very short time when things change suddenly
1
9.9
A very short time, like an instant
1
3.8
In a very short time
1
3.5
Very quickly, in an instant
1
3.2
A very short moment like the quick closing and opening of an eyelid
Happen very quickly in the short time it takes to blink an eye
Very quickly, in almost no time
Very short and easy to miss if you do not look closely
Happens very quickly
Antonyms
How Brief
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally references the brief action of an eyelid ('blink') and thus directly conveys an extremely short period; a B1 learner who knows 'blink' and 'eye' can readily infer the temporal meaning. This simple, cross-linguistically common metaphor makes the expression compositionally transparent rather than idiomatic or unpredictable.
Etymology
The phrase blink of an eye comes from the tiny, quick action of a blink of the eye. That almost instant action is why we use the phrase to mean 'a very short time' or 'very quickly'.