Other forms: winks, winking, winked
To wink is to close one eye quickly at somebody as a playful signal. Wink at her, give him a wink, with a wink.
It means we two share something the others do not — a joke, a secret, a small conspiracy. It can also be flirtatious, which is why context does all the work. A light that winks flashes on and off. The noun also appears in not sleep a wink, meaning not at all, and in the phrase a nod and a wink, meaning an unofficial hint. Note forty winks, meaning a short nap.
1verbwinkTo close one eye quickly at somebody as a signal.
“She winked at him across the whole table.”
2noungestureThat gesture.
“He agreed with a wink and no explanation.”
wink is a signal with the eye.
Old English wincian meant to close the eyes, from a root meaning to bend — the same family as wince. Winking and wincing are the same movement, separated by whether you meant it.
Proto-Indo-European
*weng- — to bow, bend, arch, curve
Proto-West Germanic
*winkōn — to close one's eyes
Old English
wincian — to wink, make a sign, close the eyes, blink
Middle English
wynken
English, today
wink
From Middle English wynken, from Old English wincian (“to wink, make a sign, close the eyes, blink”), 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 stq wäänke, Dutch wenken (“to beckon, motion”), Latin vacillare (“sway”), Lithuanian véngti (“to swerve, avoid”), Albanian vang (“tire, felloe”), Sanskrit वङ्गति (“(he, she) limps”), French guigner (“to eye, sneak a look at”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA