ppl. a. [UN-1 10.]
In very frequent use from c. 1855.
1. Marked by absence of winking; characterized by watchfulness or vigilance.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., xvii. ¶ 9. That unwinking vigilance which a delicate … father will judge necessary in the care of daughters.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Tempest, 88. The open eyes Of that dead man,… With their unwinking, unexpressive stare.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. xxviii. The attitude … was now expressive of unwinking watchfulness.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., XXV. No fish could have maintained a more unwinking silence.
1896. A. Morrison, Child Jago, 326. His eyes were red with strained, unwinking attention.
transf. a. 1873. B. Harte, in Fiddletown, etc. (1873), 127. The sands had a dreadful unwinking glare.
2. Not winking; never closing the eyes.
1811. Lamb, Edax on Appetite, Wks. 1908, I. 153. The broad, unwinking eye of the world.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., viii. 201. She watches her prey, lynx-eyed, unwinking upon him.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 227. Such answer as might be looked for from the unwinking sphinx.
transf. 1875. Miss Bird, Sandwich Isl., 5. A white, unwinking, scintillating sun.
Hence Unwinkingly adv. (Freq. from c. 1890.)
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, x. A formidable eye … looked as steadily, as unwinkingly, at you as if it were a steel ball soldered in her head.
1891. J. H. Pearce, Esther Pentreath, III. viii. She found Aichel … unwinkingly there on the watch.
