twinkle in one's father's eye

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twinkle in one's father's eye (plural twinkles in their fathers' eyes)

1. (idiomatic, colloquial, humorous) A notional look of anticipation or hope (either for sex or a child) in one's father's eyes at or around the time of one's conception.
   • 1975, Terry Blake, The Fig Tree, Aim Publishing (1975), page 26:

     Kimberly handed him a whisky and said: "So's that, my boy. Forty-eight-year-old Glenlivet. This was a connoisseur's drop before you were a twinkle in your father's eye."

   • 1992, Martina Cole, Dangerous Lady, Headline Publishing (2008), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     'Don't you take the piss out of me, sonny. I was doing this job when you were just a drunken twinkle in your father's eye!'

   • 2010, Max Overton & Jim Darley, Sequestered, Sequestered Books (2010), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     “Thirty years ago you would not even have been a twinkle in your father's eye.”

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:twinkle in one's father's eye.

Used to refer to a person when discussing things which existed at or before the time that person was conceived.

• glint in the milkman's eye
• twinkle in one's daddy's eye