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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. quotations examples
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.
1909, Frederick Rolfe, Don Renato, Chatto & Windus, published 1963
Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. ‘Goody-goody,’ she said nictating.
1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
In the absence of stimulation, C. elegans dauers are lethargic and generally immobile but nictate vigorously when disturbed.
2011, Perry & Wharton, Molecular and Physiological Basis of Nematode Survival, page 113