See on the blink in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for on the blink meaning in English (2.7kB)
{
"etymology_text": "Presumably from an appliance with poor electrical connection blinking from intermittent connection.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "prepositional phrase",
"head": ""
},
"expansion": "on the blink",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "on the blink",
"name": "en-PP"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Australian English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "My toaster is on the blink, making either charcoal or cold bread.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1968, “I'm So Tired”, in John Lennon (lyrics), The Beatles, performed by the Beatles",
"text": "I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink / I'm so tired, my mind is on the blink",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"functioning erratically, malfunctioning; not working or not working well. Usually refers to a mechanical or electrical device."
],
"id": "en-on_the_blink-en-prep_phrase-JI014~C1",
"links": [
[
"function",
"function"
],
[
"erratic",
"erratic"
],
[
"malfunction",
"malfunction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Australia, informal) functioning erratically, malfunctioning; not working or not working well. Usually refers to a mechanical or electrical device."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "malfunctioning",
"word": "on the fritz"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"informal"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "kaputt sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "im Eimer sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "am Ende sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "im Arsch sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "hinüber sein"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "niedysponowany"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-on the blink.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "on the blink"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Presumably from an appliance with poor electrical connection blinking from intermittent connection.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "prepositional phrase",
"head": ""
},
"expansion": "on the blink",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "on the blink",
"name": "en-PP"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Australian English",
"British English",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English informal terms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English prepositional phrases",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "My toaster is on the blink, making either charcoal or cold bread.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1968, “I'm So Tired”, in John Lennon (lyrics), The Beatles, performed by the Beatles",
"text": "I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink / I'm so tired, my mind is on the blink",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"functioning erratically, malfunctioning; not working or not working well. Usually refers to a mechanical or electrical device."
],
"links": [
[
"function",
"function"
],
[
"erratic",
"erratic"
],
[
"malfunction",
"malfunction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Australia, informal) functioning erratically, malfunctioning; not working or not working well. Usually refers to a mechanical or electrical device."
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-on the blink.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d2/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/En-au-on_the_blink.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "malfunctioning",
"word": "on the fritz"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "kaputt sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "im Eimer sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "am Ende sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "im Arsch sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "hinüber sein"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be malfunctioning (device), the state of being out of order",
"word": "niedysponowany"
}
],
"word": "on the blink"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (e268c0e and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.