Wink Meaning
/ˈwɪŋk/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo close one's eyes in sleep.
verbTo close one's eyes.
Sentence Examples
Last night I did not get a wink of sleep.
I could hardly get a wink of sleep last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He gave her a quick ____ as a secret signal across the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He gave her a quick ____ to indicate that he was only joking about the several many small problems today.
Word Origin & History
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 beckon, motion”), Latin vacillare (“sway”), Lithuanian véngti (“to swerve, avoid”), Albanian vang (“tire, felloe”), Sanskrit वङ्गति (vaṅgati, “(he, she) limps”), French guigner (“to eye, sneak a look at”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 43”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"Art thou ashamed to kiss? then wink again,
And I will wink; so shall the day seem night […]"
— 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
"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."
— 1816, The Black Dwarf, Walter Scott, Chapter the Fifth:
"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."
— 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
"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."
— 1638, George Herbert, “Miserie”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, 5th edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] T[homas] Buck, and R[oger] Daniel, printers to the Universitie of Cambridge, →OCLC, page 94:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
He gave her a quick ____ as a secret signal across the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He gave her a quick ____ to indicate that he was only joking about the several many small problems today.