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Added 6 October 2026

wink

/ˈwɪŋk/ verb

In Latin: nicto, conniveo Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about wink at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

To close one's eyes in sleep.
To close one's eyes.
Usually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.

noun

An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
A brief time; an instant.

noun

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

noun

Synonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).

Origin

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”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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