Definition of "wink" in English

verb

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

2. (intransitive) To close one's eyes.

3. (intransitive) Usually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.

4. (intransitive) To close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.

5. (transitive, intransitive) 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.

6. (intransitive) To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.

   • Her kitchen is a series of Still Lives; the copper pans wink on the walls.

noun

1. An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.

2. A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.

3. A brief time; an instant.

4. 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.

5. A subtle allusion.

   • The film includes a wink to wartime rationing.

noun

1. (tiddlywinks) Synonym of tiddlywink (“small disc used in the game of tiddlywinks”).

noun

1. (chiefly British, slang) Synonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).