WINKING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Winking

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/wˈɪŋkɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Wink v. t. To cause (the eyes) to wink.(Colloq.)

Wink v. i. (past & past part. winked; pres. part. winking)

1.

To nod; to sleep; to nap. (Obs.) "Although I wake or wink."

2.

To shut the eyes quickly; to close the eyelids with a quick motion. "He must wink, so loud he would cry." "And I will wink, so shall the day seem night." "They are not blind, but they wink."

3.

To close and open the eyelids quickly; to nictitate; to blink. "A baby of some three months old, who winked, and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day."

4.

To give a hint by a motion of the eyelids, often those of one eye only. "Wink at the footman to leave him without a plate."

5.

To avoid taking notice, as if by shutting the eyes; to connive at anything; to be tolerant; generally with at. "The times of this ignorance God winked at." "And yet, as though he knew it not, His knowledge winks, and lets his humors reign." "Obstinacy can not be winked at, but must be subdued."

6.

To be dim and flicker; as, the light winks.

Winking monkey (Zool.), the white-nosed monkey (Cersopithecus nictitans).

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Etymology of 'Winking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Winking" Quotes from Famous Books

... cryed my business was a matter that concern'd life and death; they answered, so was sleeping, at which their Lady was; I urg'd again, she had scarce time to be so since last I saw her; they smil'd again, and seem'd to instruct me, that sleeping was nothing but lying down and winking: Answers more direct I could not get: in short Sir, I ...

— Philaster - Love Lies a Bleeding • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... she had finished and been applauded and sung to, and finally allowed to sit down and eat a very cold croquette, Betty looked over at Emily Davis and the next minute for no reason at all she found herself winking back the tears. She had had such a good time that year and K. had picked out just the comical little things that made you remember the ...

— Betty Wales Senior • Margaret Warde

... an agreeable conversation of a light kind, lasted a considerable time. At length, a short silence occurring, the young ladies on either side of the young gentleman fell suddenly fast asleep; and the young gentleman, winking upon us to preserve silence, won a pair of gloves from each, thereby causing them to wake with equal suddenness and to scream very loud. The lively conversation to which this pleasantry gave rise, lasted for the remainder of the ride, ...

— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... three-cornered ones. These last be often ashamed of it, and eat most when the men be absent. Hence it came to pass that Lorna, being the loveliest of all maidens, had as much as she could do to finish her own half of pie; whereas Gwenny Carfax (though generous more than greedy), ate up hers without winking, after finishing the brown loaf; and then I begged to know the meaning ...

— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... cottage and see his curiosities absolutely petrified him; and he vowed he had rather see Old Noll charge at the head of Hazlerig's lobsters than dead men rattling their own bones, or poor innocent children swimming in pickle like witches in a pond. Winking on De Vallance with a look of significance, he said, "You do not know so much of this Doctor as I do; for though the whole country talks of his cures, they own he shuts himself up as if he dealt with the ...

— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

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