in an eyeblink
- idiom
- Informal
:
en un abrir y cerrar de ojos
- The lights went out in an eyeblink, leaving everyone in darkness.
Examples
-
Ensign, steward, and butler vanished in an eyeblink, as if they too knew an invisibility spell.
Fiction book (2001) -
The smile vanished in an eyeblink when her wristcom spoke to her.
Fiction book (2000) -
She had to do her thinking now because a lion charge from close in was nothing but a tawny blur, over in an eyeblink.
Fiction book (1996) -
Still, she thought, taking another breath and thinking, not of water so hot it would boil the skin from her bones in an eyeblink, but of Malda, waiting for her at the access point, sitting exactly where she had told him, quivering from pointed nose to skinny tail.
Blog text (9) -
The magician made the rabbit disappear in an eyeblink.
-
In an eyeblink, the storm changed from calm to chaotic.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
At once without waiting
330
1.0
Right away without any delay
50
3.3
Very quickly, in almost no time
35
2.5
Very quickly in a single moment
25
5.6
Happen at once without delay
3
3.0
It happens very quickly with little effort
1
3.5
Very quickly, in an instant
1
3.8
In a very short time
Very quickly, in almost no time
Happens very quickly
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'very quickly' is directly and compositionally derived from the parts: 'in' + 'an' marks a time span and 'eyeblink' denotes a very short moment, so the phrase literally means within that brief time. This temporal simile has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. 'in the blink of an eye') and follows a standard English time-frame pattern, making it readily understandable to B1 learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
In an eyeblink comes from the tiny time it takes to close and open your eye in a blink. So it means 'very quickly' or 'almost instantly'.