WINK • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Wink

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/wɪŋk/ Listen

noun

Wink n.

1.

The act of closing, or closing and opening, the eyelids quickly; hence, the time necessary for such an act; a moment. "I have not slept one wink." "I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink."

2.

A hint given by shutting the eye with a significant cast. "The stockjobber thus from Change Alley goes down, And tips you, the freeman, a wink."

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 'Wink'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wink" Quotes from Famous Books

... was rosy with the sunset light; even the rising dust was golden. The sky overhead was the palest of dusky whites. It was not a sky: it was just Eternity. Out of it, infinitely far, yet comparatively close, a few stars were beginning to wink. ...

— "Contemptible" • "Casualty"

... is a very sagacious animal, especially in Hampshire, and so he smells out wherever the bags of money are sown underground, and digs them up with his nose. Then he swings them on his back, and gives a curl of his tail and a wink of his eye, and lays them down just before the landlord's feet; and he's so cunning, that not an inch will he budge till he's got the receipt, with a stamp upon it, on ...

— The Stokesley Secret • Charlotte M. Yonge

... I went alone to the shipping office to sign the articles, and there I met a great crowd of sailors, who as soon as they found what I was after, began to tip the wink all round, and I overheard a fellow in a great flapping sou'wester cap say to another old tar in a shaggy monkey-jacket, "Twig his coat, d'ye see the buttons, that chap ain't going to sea in a merchantman, he's going to shoot whales. I say, maty—look here—how ...

— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville

... said Bud, with a wink, "an' we'll fool 'em all. Them Injuns never went nowhere except inter ther east. I throwed out a blast o' hot atmosphere erbout them goin' west. That wuz ter fool ole nosey Ben, who had his neck stretched out like a spring chicken's ...

— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... these things, he heard a sound like that of a whirlwind, far up in the heavens. He looked up and saw a black speck which grew rapidly larger until it became a dense cloud. Out of it came a flash and then a thunderbolt. The boy was obliged to wink; and when he opened his eyes, behold! a stately man stood before him and challenged him ...

— Indian Boyhood • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

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