Word.ws English Dictionary

nictitating

/ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ/

nictitating adjective: winking, blinking. Also the present participle and gerund of nictitate.

Adjective

nictitating (comparative more nictitating, superlative most nictitating)

  1. winking, blinking
    • But she gave me only a dry look. A blink crossed the table. It even seemed to come from the bottom of her eye upward, like a nictitating membrane.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 406

Also used as

nictitating is also the present participle and gerund of nictitate.

Forms of nictitating

comparativemore nictitating
superlativemost nictitating

Origin of nictitating

From the past participle stem of Latin nictitō, frequentative form of nictō (“to wink”) (see English nictate).

Words formed from nictitating

Phrases with nictitating

Questions about nictitating

What does nictitating mean?
Nictitating means winking, blinking.
What part of speech is nictitating?
Nictitating is an adjective.
How do you pronounce nictitating?
Nictitating is pronounced /ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ/.

Words near nictitating in the dictionary

  1. nictitans
  2. nictitant
  3. nictitate
  4. nictitated
  5. nictitates
  6. nictitating
  7. nictitating membrane
  8. nictitating membranes
  9. nictitation
  10. nictitations
  11. NICU

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nictitating (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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