Perhaps onomatopoeic; perhaps an error for, or a nonce alteration of, blink or click; perhaps a continuation of Middle English bliken (compare blicker), which may have survived in dialect despite not being attested in print for 500 years.
Meanings
(transitive) To shine, gleam.
The lancing sunlight blicked sharps of light from the scattering of sand on the marble of the plinth. 2006, Hugh Cook, The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster, page 646:
Shirley Steynes Bluey took a deep breath as he entered the main street; nothing new under the sun-lamp as white pinks blicked across the street in a line of heat-glazed asterisks 1978, Michael Wilding, The Tabloid Story Pocket Book, page 82:
(ambitransitive, nonce-word) To make, or cause to make, a soft, crisp sound.
He pulled out a cigarette lighter and blicked it. 2005, Clyde White, Garbage Angel: Sarah's Story, page 16:
The recorder blicked off, and the tape hissed to the end of the reel in silence. 1988, Sheila Radley, The chief inspector's daughter, page 171:
On her first day, as she walked into work[…][s]he blicked-in at the time clock[…] 2014, Lynn Russell, The sweethearts, page 231 (large print edition):
From German Blick (“look, glance, twinkle, flash”), from Middle High German blic, from Old High German blik, blich, from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *blikiz (“shine, appearance, look”), related to *blīkaną.
Cognate with Dutch blik, Danish blik, Icelandic blik (“gleam, sheen”), Old English blice (“sheen, denuded site”).
Meanings
The brightening or iridescence appearing on silver or gold at the end of the cupelling or refinishing process.
It was also found advantageous not to complete cupellations in the cupel furnace, but to stop the operation some time before the Blick, and to transfer the alloy to the refining furnace, in which cupellation is completed and the silver refined; 1874, John Arthur Phillips, Elements of Metallurgy, page 511:
Commonly, as it cools, it emits a sudden gleam or flash of light[…]but as this gleam or “blick” is exhibited by gold as well as by silver[…] 1881, Edward John Chapman, Practical Instructions for the Determination by Furnace Assay of Gold and Silver in Rocks and Ores, page 46:
The nearer the process approaches to the “Blick,” the slower is the formation of litharge, till at last it can only be continued by a very strong fire. 1870, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, page 417:
When the blick ( or coloured films ) just disappears, close the doors for a few minutes and then remove the cupels, taking the usual precautions against the button spitting. 1903, William A. Macleod, Charles Walker, Metallurgical Analysis and Assaying, page 268:
When the last of the lead separates, and the button is not smaller than a pin-head, there is a brilliant play of colors, then the button becomes dull; this is known as the "blick," "brightening," "fulguration," or "coruscation." 1888 May, Frederick W. Clark, “Notes on Assaying of Lead, Silver, and Gold”, in Technology Quarterly, volume 1, page 338:
From German Blick (“look, glance, twinkle, flash”), from Middle High German blic, from Old High German blik, blich, from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *blikiz (“shine, appearance, look”), related to *blīkaną.
Cognate with Dutch blik, Danish blik, Icelandic blik (“gleam, sheen”), Old English blice (“sheen, denuded site”).
Meanings
(intransitive) Of gold or silver, to exhibit blick.
The English cupelling furnaces are used; the bars of rich bullion being fed continually until the silver blicks, the litharge running into small iron pots for removal. 1881, United States. Bureau of the Mint ·, Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States, page 355:
When the cupellation is nearly finished, a play of colors is seen, and the button [sc. of silver] suddenly brightens or “blicks,” and becomes white, and is free from lead. 1870, Karl Remigius Fresenius, System of instruction in quantitative chemical analysis, § 226, page 530:
As the last of the lead is oxidized the iridescence suddenly disappears and the surface brightens or “blicks." 1914, Edward Garfield Mahin, Quantitative Analysis, page 483:
And we used the saw to cut down the snow in little blicks. 1999, Erno Rossi, White Death - Blizzard of '77, page 116:
Method of producing short boards as boards for boxes, cases or the like, characterized by the fact that the log previous to or after the ends thereof being cut away as usual is cut into short logs or blicks of about the length of the boards to be produced, 1914, Frans Hugo Johansson, “No. 158,342 Short Board Production”, in The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights, page 3031:
Witness here described many blicks of wood cut out of trees on this line showing ages of marks. 1832, Cornelia G. Goodrich et al. Vs. West Lumber Company, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 113:
Probably from replacing the initial letter C of click with the letter B in Blood slang.
Meanings
(Multicultural-London-English, slang) A pistol.
Fix up, look sharp. Don't make me get the blicks out, get dark. 2003 July 21, “Fix Up, Look Sharp” (track 6), in Boy In Da Corner, performed by Dizzy Rascal: