Word.ws English Dictionary

kiddlywink

kiddlywink noun: a small pub only licensed to sell beer or cider.

Noun

kiddlywink (plural kiddlywinks)

  1. (Cornwall, historical) A small pub only licensed to sell beer or cider.
    • "And we have a notion how much he had to drink in the kiddlywink."1974, Marjorie Watson, Heir to Polventon, →ISBN
    • Bessie's Cove was said to be named after a Bessie Burrows who kept a small 'kiddlywink' inn on the cliff-top.1980, John Hugh Norton Mason, West country walks and legends, Academy Chicago Pub
    Synonyms:
    kiddly
  2. (historical) A small village shop.
  3. (humorous) A child.
    • 'My sweet kiddlywinks, we are going on a car trip into the mountains and there we 'll stay in Danny's house in the rainforest.'2007, Ally Blake, Millionaire to the Rescue, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 35
    • Frankie wasn't sure he liked being called a kiddlywink but, as the air fizzed around him, he felt his worries dissolve like a spoonful of sherbet2013, Anna Kemp, The Great Brain Robbery, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

Examples of kiddlywink in a sentence

  • There's a kiddlywink there where my crew and l have spent many a happy hour.”2011, Patricia Gaffney, Lily, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
  • 'Well, kiddlywinks' –she touched her face round the edges– 'we've somebody coming tos ee us.2014, Andrea Ashworth, Once in a House on Fire: Picador Classic, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

Synonyms of kiddlywink

Forms of kiddlywink

pluralkiddlywinks
alternative formkiddle-a-wink
alternative formkiddleywink

Origin of kiddlywink

Possibly related to tiddlywink or kiddywink.

Questions about kiddlywink

What does kiddlywink mean?
Kiddlywink means a small pub only licensed to sell beer or cider.
How do you use kiddlywink in a sentence?
There's a kiddlywink there where my crew and l have spent many a happy hour.”
What part of speech is kiddlywink?
Kiddlywink is a noun.
What is the plural of kiddlywink?
The plural of kiddlywink is kiddlywinks.

Words near kiddlywink in the dictionary

  1. kiddles
  2. kiddleywink
  3. kiddleywinks
  4. kiddlies
  5. kiddly
  6. kiddlywink
  7. kiddlywinks
  8. kiddo
  9. kiddoes
  10. kiddom
  11. kiddos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kiddlywink (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-kiddlywink.wav.

Cite this entry: “kiddlywink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kiddlywink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.