Word.ws English Dictionary

winker

Syllables: wink·er/ˈwɪŋkə/US/ˈwɪŋkəɹ/

winker noun: a person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”). Also the clipping of tiddlywinker.

Noun

winker (plural winkers)

  1. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”).
    1. A person who connives with another; a conniver.
      • He [Joshua] vvas the pattern of a true Judge, he vvas no gift-taker, he vvas no vvinker, he vvas no by-vvalker.1549 March 31 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon VII. Being the Third Sermon Preached before King Edward VI. March the Twenty Second.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God...
      • And so may we iudge of these wilye winkers in Religion, that either they be blindstockes in deede and lacke the light of that Heauenlye wysedome, which they pretende to haue, or els their wicked wysedome is but a cloake of wickednes […]1574, John Bale, “To the Right Honourable Lorde Thomas Earle of Sussex, […]”, in John Studley, transl., The Pageant of Popes Contayninge the Lyues of All the Bishops of Rome, from the Beginninge of...
  2. (informal) Synonym of turn signal (“each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which is used to indicate that the vehicle is moving left or right”); a blinker, an indicator.
    Synonyms:
    turn signal
  3. (also, attributive, figuratively, in plural) Synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side”).
    • [T]his Censurer slaundereth manie men, another might say of him, he is the cōmon packhorse of the Papistes, to carrie any fardell of lyes deuised against any Christian man or booke that commeth in his way, and the rather because he weareth a paire of winkers ouer his eyes like a milhorse, being...1583, William Fulke, “A Briefe Confutation of Sundry Cavils and Quarels, Uttered by Diuerse Papistes in Their Seuerall Bookes & Pamphlets against the Writings of William Fulke”, in A Defense of the...
    • Take the winkers off that donkey's face, and let him get a bit to eat; there's grass enough, God knows, and it's good grass.1914, James Stephens, chapter I, in The Demi-Gods, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, book I (Patsy Mac Cann), page 4
    Synonyms:
    blinder, blinker
  4. A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which controls variations of wind pressure.
    • Where the wind-trunk is short between the reservoir and wind-chests the tone will be steady; but when it is long, and with bends, the elasticity of the air causes an unsteadiness in the tone, which must be obviated by the use of concussion-bellows, sometimes called "winkers," or by an elastic...1877, W[illia]m H[oratio] Clarke, “The Interior of the Organ”, in An Outline of the Structure of the Pipe Organ […], Boston, Mass.: Oliver Ditson Company […], →OCLC, page 21
  5. The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye.
    • There is a third inner eyelid, highly developed and of beautiful mechanism: this is the nictitating membrane, or "winker" (nictito, I wink), a delicate, elastic, translucent, pearly-white fold of the conjunctiva. While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker...1884, Elliott Coues, “§ 4.—An Introduction to the Anatomy of Birds.”, in Key to North American Birds. […], 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Estes and Lauriat, →OCLC, part II (General Ornithology), page 180
  6. (UK, dialectal, slang) An eye.
    • [H]e has shell'd out the lour for the occasion, and is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal. [Footnote ǁ: “Wakeful winker—A sharp eye.”]p. 1821, “an amateur” [pseudonym], chapter XXVII, in Real Life in London; or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq. and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, through the Metropolis; […], volume...
    • With keener stare / The man's eyes scanned him, with the flare / Of yellow light full on his face, / As though his memory sought to trace / Something familiar in the lean / Clearcut young features and the clean / Blue winkers: then his own hard eyes / Twinkled, […]1947, Wilfrid [Wilson] Gibson, “Section II”, in Coldknuckles, London: Frederick Muller […], →OCLC; republished as Coldknuckles (Faded Page; ebook #20141058), Canada: Distributed Proofreaders Canada...
  7. (UK, US, dialectal, slang) An eyelash.
    • We're like father and Aunt Nina, hanging on the wall in the library. Mother's got big black eyes, with winkers a rod long, and her hair shines like my velvet coat, and comes most to her feet.1864, Mary J[ane] Holmes, “Six Years Later”, in Darkness and Daylight. […], New York, N.Y.: Carleton, […], →OCLC, page 368
    • I had fallen down on my knees, with my back to the wind, and already the snow had drifted around me. I also found my eye-lashes frozen together, and I lost several winkers in getting rid of those solidified tears.1915, Arthur Stringer, “Monday the Eleventh”, in The Prairie Wife […], Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 179
    Synonyms:
    eye-winker

Proper noun capitalized: Winker

Winker (plural Winkers)

  1. A surname from German.

Also used as

winker is also the clipping of tiddlywinker.

Examples of winker in a sentence

  • The collar of his cambric shirt, English fashion, is highly starched and looks like winkers, its points projecting upward in front with a wide gap between.1964, Aleksandr Pushkin, translated by Vladimir Nabokov, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse […], volumes 2 (Commentary on Preliminaries and...
  • While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker sweeps horizontally or obliquely across the ball, from the side next the beak to the opposite.1884, Elliott Coues, “§ 4.—An Introduction to the Anatomy of Birds.”, in Key to North American Birds. […], 2nd edition, Boston, Mass....
  • His eyebrows are gone and his winkers, and he’s as red as a gobbler’s neck.1931, B. M. Bower [pseudonym; Bertha Muzzy Sinclair], “The Native Son”, in Dark Horse: A Story of the Flying U, New York, N.Y.: Triangle...

Synonyms of winker

Forms of winker

Noun
pluralwinkers
Proper noun
pluralWinkers

Origin of winker

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

Clipping of tiddlywinker.

Borrowed from German Winker.

Words formed from winker

Words that rhyme with winker

Questions about winker

What does winker mean?
Winker means a person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”).
How do you use winker in a sentence?
The collar of his cambric shirt, English fashion, is highly starched and looks like winkers, its points projecting upward in front with a wide gap between.
What part of speech is winker?
Winker can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce winker?
Winker is pronounced /ˈwɪŋkə/ (UK).
What is the plural of winker?
The plural of winker is winkers.

Words near winker in the dictionary

  1. Winkelmann
  2. Winkelmanns
  3. Winkelmans
  4. Winkels
  5. Winkelses
  6. winker
  7. winkered
  8. winkers
  9. winketh
  10. Winkey
  11. Winkeys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: winker (page history and authors); Winker (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)-Vealhurl-winker.wav.

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