SuaviloquyToday’s word

twinkling

Twinkling, n.

1. The act of one who, or of that which, twinkles; a quick movement of the eye; a wink; a twinkle. Holland.

2. A shining with intermitted light; a scintillation; a sparkling; as, the twinkling of the stars.

3. The time of a wink; a moment; an instant. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, . . . the dead shall be raised incorruptible. 1 Cor. xv. 52.

Shades of meaning

Fernald has no entry of its own for twinkling; he lists it under light.

Where he writes about it:

Twinkle and twinkling are used of the intermittent light of the fixed stars. — from light