to blink away
- phrasal verb
- Ellie blinks away the tears.
- blinked away tears
- try to blink away
- blinked away the moisture
Examples
-
He closes his eyes, blinking away the sweat.
Fiction book (1996) -
She blinked away her unshed tears.
Fiction book (2001) -
She was blinking away tears when she finished.
Fiction book (2000) -
In his bed, Bruce wakes, trying to blink away the images.
Fiction book (1995) -
John shakes his head, trying to blink away the nightmare.
Fiction book (2000) -
As he hugged his family and blinked away tears in his eyes, McCarron knew he had done something amazing.
Blog text (30) -
Her eyes smarted from the tang of the cut pine and the quick tears for her father that she blinked away.
Fiction book (1991) -
He dipped his candle carefully and blinked away some tears.
Fiction book (1997) -
"Yes," agreed Maddie, and she blinked away the tears that came as she thought of Wanda standing alone, looking at the group of laughing gifts after she had said, "Sure, a hundred—all lined up..."
Fiction book (1996) -
After hearing the good news, I blinked away the tears of happiness that filled my eyes.
Synonyms
To close and open the eyelids to stop tears from falling
To blink many times to stop tears or strong feelings
To try to stop crying by blinking quickly
Antonyms
How Controlled
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'blink' names the action and 'away' signals removal or dispelling, so 'blink away' naturally means to make tears/emotion go away by blinking. This verb+away pattern is a common, productive construction in English (and parallels exist in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Blink away comes from the simple image of closing your eyes quickly: by blinking you move a tear away from your face before it falls. So it means 'to try to stop tears or hide strong feelings'.