Library / English Dictionary

WINK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly

Synonyms:

blink; blinking; eye blink; nictation; nictitation; wink; winking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("wink" is a kind of...):

inborn reflex; innate reflex; instinctive reflex; physiological reaction; reflex; reflex action; reflex response; unconditioned reflex (an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wink"):

palpebration (repeated blinking or winking (especially if uncontrolled and persistent))

Derivation:

wink (briefly shut the eyes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Closing one eye quickly as a signal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("wink" is a kind of...):

facial expression; facial gesture (a gesture executed with the facial muscles)

Derivation:

wink (signal by winking)

wink (keep back by blinking)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat)

Example:

if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash

Synonyms:

blink of an eye; flash; heartbeat; instant; jiffy; New York minute; split second; trice; twinkling; wink

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("wink" is a kind of...):

bit; minute; mo; moment; second (an indefinitely short time)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Briefly shut the eyes

Example:

The TV announcer never seems to blink

Synonyms:

blink; nictate; nictitate; wink

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wink" is one way to...):

act involuntarily; act reflexively (act in an uncontrolled manner)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wink"):

palpebrate (wink or blink, especially repeatedly)

bat; flutter (wink briefly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

wink (a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly)

winker (a person who winks)

winking (a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Signal by winking

Example:

She winked at him

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wink" is one way to...):

gesticulate; gesture; motion (show, express or direct through movement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

wink (closing one eye quickly as a signal)

winker (a person who winks)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Keep back by blinking

Example:

blink away tears

Synonyms:

blink; blink away; wink

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wink" is one way to...):

hold back; keep; keep back; restrain (prevent the action or expression of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

wink (closing one eye quickly as a signal)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Gleam or glow intermittently

Example:

The lights were flashing

Synonyms:

blink; flash; twinkle; wink; winkle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "wink" is one way to...):

radiate (cause to be seen by emitting light as if in rays)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wink"):

flick; flicker (flash intermittently)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

"I'll try," said Jo, winking hard as she knelt down to pick up the basket she had joyfully upset.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Do not wink with one eye and look with the other, Silas, and do not hop and dance after you shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its way.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Elinor could not suppose that Sir John would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for Edward, than he had been with respect to Marianne; indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two, as being somewhat newer and more conjectural; and since Edward's visit, they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks, as to excite general attention.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

For, although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I remember too, Miss Andrews drank tea with us that evening, and wore her puce-coloured sarsenet; and she looked so heavenly that I thought your brother must certainly fall in love with her; I could not sleep a wink all right for thinking of it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“Nothing child, nothing. I did not wink at you.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“We have got to the deductions and the inferences,” said Lestrade, winking at me.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The eyes winked three times, and then they turned up to the ceiling and down to the floor and rolled around so queerly that they seemed to see every part of the room.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He only winked lazily, when she kissed his ball of a head.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For two nights I had hardly had a wink of sleep, and my brain was beginning to feel that numbness which marks cerebral exhaustion.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)