[f. WINK v.1 + -ING1.] The action of WINK v.1
† 1. Closing the eyes in sleep; dozing, slumbering; also, a doze, a nap. Obs.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 145. Þer scal beon … lokinge wið-uten winkunge, song wið-uten lisse.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 3. Þanne waked I of my wynkynge and wo was with-alle, Þat I ne hadde sleped sadder. Ibid. (1393), C. XII. 167. In a wynkynge ich worth and wonderliche ich mette.
attrib. 1625. Fletcher & Shirley, Nt.-Walker, IV. i. So, so, he’s fast; Fast as a fish ith’ net, he has winking powder Shall worke upon him to our wish.
b. The taking of ‘forty winks.’
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. xii. 239. Stephenson … would occasionally refresh himself … by a short doze, which … be would never admit had exceeded the limits of ‘winking,’ to use his own term.
2. The shutting of the eyes, as in blinking, as a gesture of aversion or connivance, and now esp. as a flippant indication of intimate knowledge or amused interest. † Also, a significant glance or movement of the eyes; with at, connivance.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 530/1. Wynkkynge, of the eye (S. with the eye), nictitacio,… nictus,… conquinicio,… connivencia.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 282. Glowtynge ne twynkelynge with your yȝe … Watery wynkynge ne droppynge but of sight clere.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Nictus, a wynkynge, as whan one doth sygnifie his mynde to an other by loking.
1564–78. Bullein, Dial. agst. Pest. (1888), 20. What meaneth hee by winkyng like a Goose in the raine?
1572. Instructions Earl Worc., in Digges, Compl. Ambass. (1655), 318. To suffer no permission or winking at of any other Religion then that which … our Realm hath always held.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 211. On the winking of Authoritie To vnderstand a Law. Ibid. (1603), Ham., II. ii. 137. If I had … giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 152. Breaches of charity … by the wincking and scorning of our eyes.
1664. Tillotson, Wisdom of being religious, 33. If there be a God, a man cannot by an obstinate dis-belief of him make him cease to be, any more then a man can put out the Sun by winking.
1684. Howe, Redeemer’s Tears, Wks. 1724, II. 15. Men may indeed, by resolved, stiff, winking, create to themselves a darkness amidst the clearest Light.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 138. If … any one … should … make them think there is any difference between being in the dark and winking, you must get it out of their Minds.
1783. O’Keeffe, Birth-Day, 28. Sly winking and blinking, As leering and jeering.
1824. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, I. 206. What … is all this winking and smirking about?
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., xiv. It is the misfortune of the weaker on such occasions … to be obliged to take the petty part of winking hard, as if not able to see what they cannot avenge.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxviii. The fat boy swallowed a glass of liquor without so much as winking.
3. The rapid alternating motion of an object; the intermittent flashing of light.
1859. J. Brown, Rab & F., 16. The mobility … of that bud [of a tail],… its expressive twinklings and winkings … were of the oddest and swiftest.
[1899. F. T. Bullen, Way Navy, 28. The flagship keeps breaking out into rapid winkings of lofty electric eyes.]
1908. C. W. Wallace, Children Chapel Blackfriars, Introd. 11. The modern signal bell of the German theatre calling the audience in from the refreshment rooms when an act is ready to begin;—a signal reduced in American theatres to the winking of the lights.
4. Like winking: in a flash, in a twinkling, very rapidly or suddenly; also, with vigor or persistency, ‘like one o’clock,’ ‘like anything.’ So, as easy as winking.
1827. Hood, Sailor’s Apol. for Bow-legs, 71. Both my legs began to bend like winkin.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. He’s a regular scholar, and can sum up like winkin.
1872. ‘Aliph Cheem’ (Yeldham), Lays of Ind (1876), 85. But [we] cry ‘pray grow your opium!’ Because it pays like winking.
1907. H. Wyndham, Flare of Footlights, xxxv. She’ll … make a hundred and fifty a week as easy as winking.
