wink
/ˈwɪŋk/
wink verb: to close one's eyes in sleep.
Verb
wink (third-person singular simple present winks, present participle winking, simple past and past participle winked)
- To close one's eyes in sleep.
- When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 43”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
- When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
- To close one's eyes.
- Art thou ashamed to kiss? then wink again,
- And I will wink; so shall the day seem night […]1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC
- Usually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.
- 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.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
- But man doth know / The ſpring, whence all things flow: / And yet, as though he knew it not, / His knowledge winks, and lets his humours reigne: / They make his life a conſtant blot, / And all the bloud of God to run in vain.1638, George Herbert, “Miserie”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, 5th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] T[homas] Buck, and R[oger] Daniel...
- Synonyms:
- connive, shut one's eyes
- To close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.
- The pipes began to be puffed in a silence which had an air of severity; the more important customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire, staring at each other as if a bet were depending on the first man who ‘’’winked’’’ […]1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VI, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC
- To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy. (When transitive, the object may be the eye being winked, or the message being conveyed.)
- He winked at me. She winked her eye. He winked his assent.
- Oliver saw Kit Carson wink at the lieutenant and Lucien Maxwell, as the speech reached them, and it was evident that these three leaders did not believe the Indian tales. Consequently he himself decided that the reports of "evil spirits" awaiting were all bosh.1912, Edwin L. Sabin, chapter VIII, in With Carson and Frémont
- To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.
- Down in the bottoms the sycamore and cottonwood are casting off their yellowing leaves; but the white oak will cling to her gorgeous finery till the blizzard comes shrieking up the gulch to wrest it from her, or until the winking prairie-fire leaps among her branches, and mounting upward to the...1899, Will T. Whitlock, “The Circumflex”, in Overland Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, second series
- Her kitchen is a series of Still Lives; the copper pans wink on the walls.1920, Katherine Mansfield, Letter to Richard Murray (ca. September 19), Vincent O. Sullivan & Margaret Scott, The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Vol. 4 (1996)
Noun (1)
wink (plural winks)
- An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
- Synonyms:
- 😉, ;), ;-)
- A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
- I couldn't bear to leave him where he is. I shouldn't sleep a wink for thinking of him.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 25”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC
- I shan't sleep a wink.1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn)
- A brief time; an instant.
- The smallest possible amount.
- It’s many’s the time I shot the selfsame rifiie before, and it’s many ’s the time after, but niver a wink of the same have I seen. 'T was the sight of a lifetime.1899, Jack London, "The Men of Forty-Nine: 'Malemute Kid" Deals with a Duel," Overland Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, second series
- A subtle allusion.
- The film includes a wink to wartime rationing.
Noun (2)
wink (plural winks)
- Synonym of tiddlywink (“small disc used in the game of tiddlywinks”).
- Synonyms:
- tiddlywink
Noun (3)
wink (plural winks)
- Synonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).
- “I buy my winks,” said one, “at Billingsgate, at 3s. and 4s. the wash. A wash is about a bushel. […]”1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
- Synonyms:
- periwinkle
wink meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
wink in Hindi
- to blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion
- आँख मारना ā̃kh mārnā
wink in Tamil
- கண்ணடித்தல், கண் சிமிட்டுதல்
wink in Marathi
- to blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion
- डोळा मारणे ḍoḷā mārṇe
wink in Urdu
- wink
- چشمک caśmak, پلک palk
More languagesFewer languages
- wink in Bengali
- নিমিষ nimiś
- wink in Telugu
- రెప్పపాటు reppapāṭu
- wink in Malayalam
- അർത്ഥം വച്ച് ഒരുകണ്ണിറുക്കിക്കാട്ടുക, സൈറ്റടിക്കുക, കണ്ണുചിമ്മുക
- wink in Kannada
- ಚಿಮುಟು, ಕುಕ್ಕು, ಮಿಟುಕಿಸು, ಕಣ್ಕೆತ್ತು
- wink in Tagalog
- pagkindat
- wink in Arabic
- غَمَزَ ḡamaza, غَمْزَة ḡamza
- wink in Persian
- چشمک زدن češmak zadan, چشمک češmak
- wink in Vietnamese
- đá lông nheo, nháy mắt
Examples of wink in a sentence
- I kept my eyes shut, after once glancing at him; and, I protest, I thought I saw him still, though I winked as close as ever I could.1816, The Black Dwarf, Walter Scott, Chapter the Fifth:
- Therefore the scripture represents wicked men as without understanding […] they are not blind; but they wink; […] though they know God, yet they do not glorify him as God […]1664, John Tillotson, “Sermon I. The Wisdom of Being Religious. Job XXVIII. 28.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson...
- Couldn't sleep a wink last night / Oh how I'd love to hold you tight1973, Bryan Ferry, “Pyjamarama”, performed by Roxy Music:
Synonyms of wink
- shut one's eyes
- 😉
- ;)
- ;-)
- tiddlywink
- periwinkle
- nictitate
- connive
Forms of wink
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | winks |
| present participle | winking |
| past participle | winked |
| past | winked |
| Noun | |
| plural | winks |
Origin of wink
From Middle English wynken, from Old English wincian (“to wink, make a sign, close the eyes, blink”, weak verb), from Proto-West Germanic *winkōn (“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 Saterland Frisian wäänke, Dutch wenken (“to beckon, motion”), Latin vacillare (“sway”), Lithuanian véngti (“to swerve, avoid”), Albanian vang (“tire, felloe”), Sanskrit वङ्गति (vaṅgati, “(he, she) limps”), French guigner (“to eye, sneak a look at”).
Clipping of tiddlywink.
Clipping of periwinkle.
Words formed from wink
Phrases with wink
Words that rhyme with wink
Questions about wink
- What does wink mean?
- Wink means to close one's eyes in sleep.
- What is wink in Hindi?
- Wink in Hindi is आँख मारना (ā̃kh mārnā). See Wink meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use wink in a sentence?
- I kept my eyes shut, after once glancing at him; and, I protest, I thought I saw him still, though I winked as close as ever I could.
- What part of speech is wink?
- Wink can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce wink?
- Wink is pronounced /ˈwɪŋk/.
- What is the past tense of wink?
- The past tense of wink is winked.
Words near wink in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wink (page history and authors); wink (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پلک (Urdu) (page history and authors); নিমিষ (Bengali) (page history and authors); wink (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wink (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wink.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.