c1592 C. Marlowe Jew of Malta iv. iv Vanish, and return in a twinkle.

1644 K. Digby Two Treat. ii. x. 429 That twinkle or moment, in which she becometh an.. inhabitant of the next world.

1679 J. Dryden Troilus & Cressida iii. ii. 34 Hast not slept to night? wou'd anot (a naughty Man) let it sleep one twinkle!

1681 T. Otway Souldiers Fortune iv. i. 54 I'l..be with you in a twinkle.

1903 Pilot 17 Oct. 373/1 The reduction of the military service to two years..ought to be done in a twinkle.

1905 E. Glyn Vicissitudes Evangeline 166 In the twinkle of an eye we were rolling..to Willis's.

1920 A. E. W. Mason Summons xxi. 220 ‘Do you know the fox-trot?’ ‘A little.’ ‘The twinkle step?’ ‘Not at all.’

1927 Daily Express 9 Sept. 8/3 A liberal use of ‘The Twinkle’, a step which is most attractive when danced to the slow music.

1936 A. Moore Ballroom Dancing v. 214 A Twinkle is a figure of three steps. The feet are closed..on the 2nd step and the weight is changed, and the 1st and 3rd steps are both taken in a forward direction or both in a backward direction.

1962 L. K. Engel Fred Astaire Dance Bk. xv. 47 The Open Twinkle is a slight variation of the basic One Step.

1975 G. Howell In Vogue 9/2 We got syncopated music and what to do to it—the Baleta, the Maxina, the Twinkle, the Jog Trot, the Vampire, [etc.].

1960 S. Plath Colossus 59 When on tiptoe the school~girls danced, Blinking flashlights like fireflies And singing the glowworm song, I could Not lift a foot in the twinkle-dress.

1962 Flight Internat. 82 269/2 Highlights of an outstanding presentation by the Lightnings were the ‘twinkle roll’ in which the two wingmen of a three-aircraft formation rolled individually on either side of their leader as they passed low and fast in front of the crowd.

1978 R. Jansson News Caper 7 The fighter..slid over our port wing and did a twinkle roll in front of our nose.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 29 Mar. (Suppl.) 10/2 Hand-in-hand with about six other youngsters she was scampering through a twinkle-toed dance which she later informed me is called ‘the shuffle’.

1961 Sunday Express 7 May 14/3 Abandoned, twinkle-toed dancers leaping about.

1978 Lancashire Life Nov. 129/1 John Travolta doesn't have the monopoly of twinkle toed addicts.

1616 [implied in: J. Smith Descr. New Eng. 29 The twinkling mountaine of Aucociso. (at twinkling adj. 2)].

1642 in P. H. Hore Hist. Wexford (1900) I. 303 A man might see them through the smoake of the gunpowder run twinckling like the moates in the sun.

a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) vii. 258 The open space..twinkles, is alive With heads.

1850 J. G. Saxe Poems 56 [She] twinkled a foot in the polka's twirl.

1852 M. W. Savage Reuben Medlicott v. ii I love to see the fans fluttering, the ankles twinkling, the bouquets waving.

1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies i. 36 Her feet twinkled past each other so fast, that you could not see which was foremost.

1920 Punch 10 Nov. 366/2 Chassée to the left, two steps forward, two steps back, twinkle each way.

1920 Punch 10 Nov. 366/2 I quite enjoyed that twinkling business.

1928 B.B.C. Handbk. 1929 201 Wireless dance music is often heard from houses where no one has ever ‘twinkled’ or ‘hesitated’ or ‘glided’ or ‘dragged’.

13.. [implied in: K. Alis. 2572 Mury is the twynkelyng [Laud MS. touchyng] of the harpour. (at twinkling n.²)].

1523 J. Skelton Goodly Garlande of Laurell 687 There Cintheus sat twynklyng vpon his harpe stringis.

1683 J. Pettus Fleta Minor (1686) i. 48 When the Grains of such two tryals have twinkled, fresh and clean, then take the Copper out of the oven.

1907 H. Wyndham Flare of Footlights i An electric bell twinkled warningly.., and there was a general move towards the stalls and circle.