wink

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Verb 1.3.1 Translations 1.4 Noun 1.4.1 Derived terms 1.4.2 Translations

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

Old English wincian, from Proto-Germanic *wiŋk-. Cognate with Old Saxon wincon (“‘to nod’”), Middle Dutch wincen (“‘move sideways’”).

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwɪŋk/, SAMPA: /"wINk/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

  Rhymes: -ɪŋk

[edit] Verb

to wink (third-person singular simple present winks, present participle winking, simple past and past participle winked)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To close one's eyes.
2. (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.

3. (intransitive) To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion.
4. (intransitive) To twinkle.
5. (transitive) To send an indication of agreement by winking.

[edit] Translations

[edit] Noun

wink (plural winks)

1. An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
2. A brief time; an instant.
3. A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
4. A disc used in the game of tiddlywinks.

[edit] Derived terms

• nudge nudge wink wink
• wink murder

[edit] Translations

a period of sleep - see idiom forty winks

• Lithuanian: sumirkseti