winker

See also: Winker

English
WOTD – 12 October 2023

Pronunciation
A young winker (sense 1) in Laos.
The left winker (sense 2.1), also known as an indicator or turn signal, of a car.
A winker (sense 2.2) on a horse in Chania, Crete, Greece.
The winker (sense 2.4) or nictitating membrane of the eye of a masked lapwing (Vanellus miles).
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɪŋkə/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪŋkəɹ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋkə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: wink‧er

Etymology 1

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns).[1][2]

Noun

winker (plural winkers)

  1. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”).
    1. A person who connives with another; a conniver.
      • 1549 April 1 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon VII. Being the Third Sermon Preached before King Edward VI. March the Twenty Second.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 120:
        He [Joshua] vvas the pattern of a true Judge, he vvas no gift-taker, he vvas no vvinker, he vvas no by-vvalker.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 1574, John Bale, “To the Right Honourable Lorde Thomas Earle of Sussex, […]”, in John Studley, transl., The Pageant of Popes Contayninge the Lyues of All the Bishops of Rome, from the Beginninge of Them to the Yeare of Grace 1555. […]‎, London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-28:
        And so may we iudge of these wilye winkers in Religion, that either they be blindstockes in deede and lacke the light of that Heauenlye wysedome, which they pretende to haue, or els their wicked wysedome is but a cloake of wickednes […]
      • 1614, Patrick Forbes, “A Short Discoverie of the Adversarie His Dottage, in His Impertinent and Ridiculously Deceitfull Demaunds”, in A Defence of the Lawful Calling of the Ministers of Reformed Churches, against the Cavillations of Romanists. […], Middelburgh, Zeeland: […] Richard Schilders, […], →OCLC, page 25:
        [O]ftymes, men are, of neceſſitie, forced to ſpeak the more amply even of plaine matters: as offering them not ſo much to the vievv of men vvho ſee, but even, in a ſort, to bee handled by groapers and vvinkers.
      • 1715 July 26 (Gregorian calendar), Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume VII, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton […], published 1751, →OCLC, page 218:
        VVe have, it ſeems, a great Turk in poetry, vvho can never bear a brother on the throne; and has his mutes too, a ſett of nodders, vvinkers, and vvhiſperers, vvhoſe buſineſs is to ſtrangle all other offsprings of vvit in their birth.
      • 1919, Stella Benson, “The Committee Comes to Magic”, in Living Alone, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1920, →OCLC, page 52:
        The witch saw at once that there was some secret understanding between him and her that she did not understand. Her magic escapades often left her in this position. However, she winked back hopefully. But she was not a skilled winker. Everybody—even the Dog David—saw her doing it, […]
  2. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.
    1. (automotive, informal) Synonym of turn signal (“each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which is used to indicate that the vehicle is moving left or right”); a blinker, an indicator.
    2. (equestrianism, also attributive and figurative) Chiefly in the plural: synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side”)
      Synonym: blinder
      • 1583, William Fulke, “A Briefe Confutation of Sundry Cavils and Quarels, Uttered by Diuerse Papistes in Their Seuerall Bookes & Pamphlets against the Writings of William Fulke”, in A Defense of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holie Scriptures into the English Tong against the Manifolde Cauils, Friuolous Quarels, and Impudent Slaunders of Gregorie Martin, […]‎, London: […] Henrie Bynneman, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-24, page 32:
        [T]his Censurer slaundereth manie men, another might say of him, he is the cōmon packhorse of the Papistes, to carrie any fardell of lyes deuised against any Christian man or booke that commeth in his way, and the rather because he weareth a paire of winkers ouer his eyes like a milhorse, being ashamed to shewe either his face or his name.
      • 1914, James Stephens, chapter I, in The Demi-Gods, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, book I (Patsy Mac Cann), page 4:
        Take the winkers off that donkey's face, and let him get a bit to eat; there's grass enough, God knows, and it's good grass.
      • 1964, Aleksandr Pushkin, translated by Vladimir Nabokov, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse […], volumes 2 (Commentary on Preliminaries and Chapters One to Five), New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, →OCLC, page 168:
        The collar of his cambric shirt, English fashion, is highly starched and looks like winkers, its points projecting upward in front with a wide gap between.
    3. (music) A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which controls variations of wind pressure.
      • 1877, W[illia]m H[oratio] Clarke, “The Interior of the Organ”, in An Outline of the Structure of the Pipe Organ […], Boston, Mass.: Oliver Ditson Company […], →OCLC, page 21:
        Where the wind-trunk is short between the reservoir and wind-chests the tone will be steady; but when it is long, and with bends, the elasticity of the air causes an unsteadiness in the tone, which must be obviated by the use of concussion-bellows, sometimes called "winkers," or by an elastic diaphragm.
    4. (ornithology) The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye.
      • 1884, Elliott Coues, “§ 4.—An Introduction to the Anatomy of Birds.”, in Key to North American Birds. […], 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Estes and Lauriat, →OCLC, part II (General Ornithology), page 180:
        There is a third inner eyelid, highly developed and of beautiful mechanism: this is the nictitating membrane, or "winker" (nictito, I wink), a delicate, elastic, translucent, pearly-white fold of the conjunctiva. While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker sweeps horizontally or obliquely across the ball, from the side next the beak to the opposite.
    5. (British, dialectal or slang) An eye.
      • p. 1821, “an amateur” [pseudonym], chapter XXVII, in Real Life in London; or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq. and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, through the Metropolis; […], volume I, London: T. Johnson & Co., →OCLC, page 608:
        [H]e has shell'd out the lour for the occasion, and is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal. [Footnote ǁ: “Wakeful winker—A sharp eye.”]
        A plagiarized version of Life in London (1821) by Pierce Egan.
      • 1947, Wilfrid [Wilson] Gibson, “Section II”, in Coldknuckles, London: Frederick Muller […], →OCLC; republished as Coldknuckles (Faded Page; ebook #20141058)‎, Canada: Distributed Proofreaders Canada, 13 October 2014, part I:
        With keener stare / The man's eyes scanned him, with the flare / Of yellow light full on his face, / As though his memory sought to trace / Something familiar in the lean / Clearcut young features and the clean / Blue winkers: then his own hard eyes / Twinkled, […]
    6. (British, US, dialectal or slang) An eyelash.
      Synonym: eye-winker
      • 1864, Mary J[ane] Holmes, “Six Years Later”, in Darkness and Daylight. […], New York, N.Y.: Carleton, […], →OCLC, page 368:
        We're like father and Aunt Nina, hanging on the wall in the library. Mother's got big black eyes, with winkers a rod long, and her hair shines like my velvet coat, and comes most to her feet.
      • 1915, Arthur Stringer, “Monday the Eleventh”, in The Prairie Wife […], Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 179:
        I had fallen down on my knees, with my back to the wind, and already the snow had drifted around me. I also found my eye-lashes frozen together, and I lost several winkers in getting rid of those solidified tears.
      • 1931, B. M. Bower [pseudonym; Bertha Muzzy Sinclair], “The Native Son”, in Dark Horse: A Story of the Flying U, New York, N.Y.: Triangle Books, published January 1943, →OCLC, page 217:
        His eyebrows are gone and his winkers, and he’s as red as a gobbler’s neck.
Derived terms
Translations
person who connives with another — see conniver
synonym of blinker — see blinker
nictitating membrane of a birds’s eye — see nictitating membrane
synonym of turn signal — see indicator,‎ turn signal

Etymology 2

Clipping of tiddlywinker.[3]

Noun

winker (plural winkers)

  1. (tiddlywinks) Clipping of tiddlywinker (“a player of the game of tiddlywinks”).
Translations
clipping of tiddlywinker — see tiddlywinker

References
  1. “winker, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. “winker, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  3. “winker, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

Anagrams
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