nictate
English
WOTD – 30 May 2011
![](Images/wiktionary/Eye_opening_and_closing.gif)
To nictate.
Etymology
From (the participle stem of) Latin nictāre (“to wink, blink”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /nɪkˈteɪt/
Audio (UK) (file)
Verb
nictate (third-person singular simple present nictates, present participle nictating, simple past and past participle nictated)
- To wink or blink; (of certain animals) to close the nictating membrane. [from 18th c.]
- 1909, Frederick Rolfe, Don Renato, Chatto & Windus, published 1963:
- Indignantly interrogated as to whether he himself believed or exercised this abhominable and perabsurd superstition, he very gravely nictated his dexter eyelid. And I nictated mine. And we both laughed.
- 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:
- Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. ‘Goody-goody,’ she said nictating.
- 2011, Perry & Wharton, Molecular and Physiological Basis of Nematode Survival, page 113:
- In the absence of stimulation, C. elegans dauers are lethargic and generally immobile but nictate vigorously when disturbed.
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Translations
to wink or blink
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Anagrams
- entatic, tetanic
Latin
Participle
nictāte
- vocative masculine singular of nictātus