Wink
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈwɪŋk/
- Rhymes: -ɪŋk
Origin
From Middle English winken and Middle English winken, from Old English *wincan and wincian ("to wink, make a sign, close the eyes, blink", weak verb.), from Proto-Germanic *winkanÄ… ("to move side to side, sway"), *winkÅnÄ… ("to close one's eyes"), from Proto-Indo-European *weng- ("to bow, bend, arch, curve"). Cognate with Middle Low German winken ("to blink, wink"), German winken ("to nod, beckon, make a sign"). Related also to East Frisian wäänke, Dutch wenken ("to beckon, motion"), Latin vacillare ("sway"), Lithuanian véngti ("to swerve, avoid"), Albanian vang ("tire, felloe"), Sanskrit (vañcati, "he swaggers").
Full definition of wink
Verb
- (obsolete, intransitive) To close one's eyes.
- ShakespeareI will wink, so shall the day seem night.
- TillotsonThey are not blind, but they wink.
- (archaic, intransitive) To turn a blind eye.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books, 2001, p. 51:Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.
- HerbertAnd yet, as though he knew it not,
His knowledge winks, and lets his humours reign. - John LockeObstinacy can not be winked at, but must be subdued.
- (transitive, intransitive) To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion.He winked at me.She winked her eye.
- (intransitive) To twinkle.
- (intransitive) To be dim and flicker.The light winks.
- (transitive) To send an indication of agreement by winking.
Noun
wink
(plural winks)- An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
- A brief time; an instant.
- A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
- 1919, William Somerset Maugham, ,I couldn't bear to leave him where he is. I shouldn't sleep a wink for thinking of him.
- A disc used in the game of tiddlywinks.