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wink

Pronunciation: /ˈwɪŋk/

The English word “wink” has 13 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To close one's eyes in sleep.
  2. To close one's eyes.
  3. Usually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.
  4. To close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.
  5. 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.)
  6. To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.

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.
  5. A subtle allusion.
  6. Synonym of tiddlywink (“small disc used in the game of tiddlywinks”).
  7. Synonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.