Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

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.)
6. (intransitive) To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.
7. An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
8. A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.

Example Sentences

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.

Art thou ashamed to kiss? then wink again, And I will wink; so shall the day seem night […]

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.

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.

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.

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 […]

But whenever obstinacy, which is an open defiance, appears, that cannot be winked at, or neglected, but must, in the first instance, be subdued and mastered; only care must be had, that we mistake not ; and we must be sure it is obstinacy, and nothing else.

For although the Queen had ordered a little Equipage of all things neceſſary while I was in her Service, yet my Ideas were wholly taken up with what I ſaw on every ſide of me, and winked at my own Littleneſs as People do at their own Faults.

Word Forms

• winks
• winking
• winked

Synonyms for wink

Related Words

When Should You Use Wink?

Use wink when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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