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Wink   Listen
verb
Wink  v. i.  (past & past part. winked; pres. part. winking)  
1.
To nod; to sleep; to nap. (Obs.) "Although I wake or wink."
2.
To shut the eyes quickly; to close the eyelids with a quick motion. "He must wink, so loud he would cry." "And I will wink, so shall the day seem night." "They are not blind, but they wink."
3.
To close and open the eyelids quickly; to nictitate; to blink. "A baby of some three months old, who winked, and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day."
4.
To give a hint by a motion of the eyelids, often those of one eye only. "Wink at the footman to leave him without a plate."
5.
To avoid taking notice, as if by shutting the eyes; to connive at anything; to be tolerant; generally with at. "The times of this ignorance God winked at." "And yet, as though he knew it not, His knowledge winks, and lets his humors reign." "Obstinacy can not be winked at, but must be subdued."
6.
To be dim and flicker; as, the light winks.
Winking monkey (Zool.), the white-nosed monkey (Cersopithecus nictitans).






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wink" Quotes from Famous Books



... good counsel as dutifully as he might, honours it with all such acceptance as may lie in a slight wink and a nod and takes a chair at the tea-table. The four old faces then hover over teacups like a company of ghastly cherubim, Mrs. Smallweed perpetually twitching her head and chattering at the trivets and Mr. Smallweed requiring to be repeatedly ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... ghost-story! Fezziwig, for example, with his calves shining like moons, who, after going through all the intricacies of the country dance, bow, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place, cut—"cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger!" The very Fiddler, who "went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches!" Master Peter Cratchit, again, arrayed in his father's shirt collars, who, rejoicing to find himself so gallantly attired, ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent

... and in a moment, before she could wink, she found herself in a beautiful room, with mirrors reaching from the ceiling to the floor. By these she saw that she was no longer clad in an old dingy dress, nor were her feet bare; but she had on a beautiful skirt of light-blue velvet, and a bodice of the most costly lace, trimmed ...
— The Nursery, September 1873, Vol. XIV. No. 3 • Various

... his left eyelid droop in a wink to the conductor. He knew now that they were "stalling" for time. The end of their run lay only thirty miles away. They had no intention of losing two or three hours' time while the cattle were reloaded. After the train reached the division ...
— Gunsight Pass - How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West • William MacLeod Raine

... he never bought—"You fellows always have some ro[u]nin in train; a fine, handsome fellow for whom a wife is needed. Application is made. Jinzaemon, you have a candidate."—"Not for the kind of wife Cho[u]bei San provides." Those present laughed loudly at the sally. Cho[u]bei did not wink. He explained. "No bad provision is this one. Rich, with an income of thirty tawara, a fine property in reversion, and but twenty-five years old. The man therefore must be fit to pose as a samurai; able to read and write, ...
— The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O'Iwa Inari - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... the sorrowful Pricker; he approached and pointed through the window to the house opposite. "Once all those carriages stood before my door; once I dressed all those noble people; a wink would be sufficient to recall them. Would I be untrue to the customs of my fathers, would I employ French workmen, all those carriages would be arrayed before my door. I hold the destiny of that contemptible Frenchman in my hands; a word from me, and he would be ruined; ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... put the sheepskin to his wife's back, Dandoo; He put the sheepskin to his wife's back, Clima cli clash to ma clingo, He put the sheepskin to his wife's back, And he made the old switch go whickity-whack, Then rarum scarum skimble arum Skitty-wink skatty-wink Clima ...
— A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs • Hubert G. Shearin

... suffer chiefly, but you learn to tie yourself into a kind of knot, bringing as many surfaces of your body together as possible. I have passed whole nights in this kneeling position, and slept well; whereas I should not have got a wink had I been stretched at full length with such a scanty ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... began to throw out hints about the sly hypocrisy of Puritan Yankees, and other innuendoes obviously intended to annoy him. At last, one day, he drew the embroidered slipper from his pocket, and, with a rakish wink of his eye, said, "I reckon you have seen ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. II, No. 8, June 1858 • Various

... play for the first time now," suggested Norman. "How you clasp your hands and wink your eyes and bite your lips! And next day, in front of your mother's pier-glass, how you scream 'O, my love,' and gasp and tumble over in a heap in your brown calico, as the grand lady did the night before, in ...
— Mae Madden • Mary Murdoch Mason

... I know that," fretted Aunt Polly. "I didn't sleep a wink after two o'clock myself. And there's that roof! How are we going to have it fixed, pray, if it never stops raining? Have you been up ...
— Pollyanna Grows Up • Eleanor H. Porter

... door. All came out of the carriage except the great lexicographer, who was crouching in what my uncle jokingly called the Poets' Corner, deeply interested evidently with the book he was reading. A wink from Mrs. Thrale, and a touch of her hand, silenced the host. She bade the coachman not move, and desired the people in the house to let Mr. Johnson read on till dinner was on the table, when she would go and whistle him to it. She always had a whistle hung at ...
— Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale) (2nd ed.) (2 vols.) • Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi

... cistern into which the door marked "DAVID BRUNGER (Clerks)" opened. Sliding through this door in such a manner as to give the client no glimpse of the interior, he would inform the visitor, with a confidential wink, "Fact is we have a client in there —a very well-known personage who does not wish it to be known that he is consulting us." The impressed caller would then be conducted ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson

... should never go a wooing again, for, if he did, some eyes would grow dim that are now as bright as—see, when I talk of eyes, the stars come out! Whose eyes are they? If they are angels' eyes, why do they look down here and see good men hurt, and only wink and sparkle all ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... The Professor gave me rather a stiff go of his Pableine, and I fancy it hasn't agreed with me [tapping his chest] for I can't get a wink of sleep. Is there a ...
— Dolly Reforming Herself - A Comedy in Four Acts • Henry Arthur Jones

... oh, maybe half an hour or so, all at once as quick as a wink, along came Mooleyooly, the big brown cow. Mooleyooly walked up to the burdock leaf, under which was the new bonnet, and Mooleyooly saw the pretty yellow flowers on it, and she saw the blue flowers on it and she saw the red flowers on it. Then ...
— Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble • Howard R. Garis

... thinking it over for a minute he added, with the kindly wink of an accomplice in crime, "Well, let's put down nil, eh? It won't look quite ...
— General Bramble • Andre Maurois

... they feel ready to give any price to meet; so the long and short of it is that they go off to the orderly-room and qualify themselves for tickets by taking the oath and becoming enrolled members of the corps. Whereat those moving spirits in the affair wink their shrewd eyes gleefully. They will dance all the more heartily, remembering the good stroke of business they have done in the interest of the corps and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 • Various

... was raised to $50,000 almost in the wink of an eye. "This is the easy and safer part of the business," said he. "But when a check is to be raised from a sum like $10 to, say, $10,000, and the drawer has written it so that there is no room between the word 'ten' and 'dollars,' ...
— Disputed Handwriting • Jerome B. Lavay

... lord, what a place! I never saw such rude people. They stare and wink so. I think the very sight of a prince, though he travels incognito, turns their honest heads. What a pity the carriage should break down in such a spot! You are not well—the drops stand on your ...
— The Lady of Lyons - or Love and Pride • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... turnilo. Window fenestro. Window blind rulkurteno. Windpipe trahxeo. Windy venta. Wine vino. Wine making vinfarado. Wine merchant vinvendisto. Wing flugilo. Wing (building) flankajxo. Wink palpebrumi. Winning (pleasing) cxarma, placxa. Winnow ventoli. Winter travintri. Winter vintro. Wintry vintra. Wipe visxi. Wire metalfadeno. Wisdom sagxo, sagxeco. Wise sagxa, sagxema. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... impudence—the rag and bone man to invite an auctioneer to his table, and his wife a murderess into the bargain! They looked on breathlessly; one farmer was even bold enough to warn him with a wink. ...
— Ditte: Girl Alive! • Martin Andersen Nexo

... show them yet! Next summer, please God, we shall be off to the Caucasus, and we will ride all over it on horseback—trot, trot, trot! And when we are back from the Caucasus I shouldn't wonder if we will all dance at the wedding." Mihail Averyanitch gave a sly wink. "We'll marry you, my dear boy, we'll marry you. . ...
— The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... E.D. (with a wink to his neighbours). On the contrary, there are several little things there belonging to me, which I'll thank you ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, November 15, 1890 • Various

... have wished, during the next few days, that Mr. Harry Hawk's attitude towards myself had not been so unctuously confidential and mysterious. It was unnecessary, in my opinion, for him to grin meaningly when he met me in the street. His sly wink when we passed each other on the Cob struck me as in indifferent taste. The thing had been definitely arranged (ten shillings down and ten when it was over), and there was no need for any cloak and dark-lantern effects. ...
— Love Among the Chickens • P. G. Wodehouse

... just a'thegither sure of that, Mr. Dallas," said she, with another effort at dignity, which was unfortunately qualified by a knowing wink. ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various

... and I would pass the wink and go at it tooth and nail. It was ridiculous, arguing the toss on a long-gone-by small-time scrap like the Civil War with the greatest show in history going on all around us. Anyway the Tommies loved it and ...
— A Yankee in the Trenches • R. Derby Holmes

... you are quite out. The laws, somehow or other, can't touch these fellows. They run through the country a wink faster than the sheriff, and laugh at all the processes you send after them. So, you see, there's no justice, no how, unless you catch a rogue like this, and wind up with him for all the gang—for they're all alike, all of the ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... I hear about Indians?" Sheppard asked excitedly. "What with Helen's story about the fort being besieged, and this brother of yours routing honest people from their beds, I haven't had a wink of sleep. What's up? Where ...
— The Last Trail • Zane Grey

... just shown you the three roads to larning, and also the three implements to persuade little boys to larn; if you don't travel very fast by the three first, why you will be followed up very smartly by the three last—a nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse, any day; and one thing more, you little spalpeen, mind that there's more mustard to the sandwiches to-morrow, or else it will end in a blow-up. Now you've got the whole theory of the art of tuition, Master Keene; ...
— Percival Keene • Frederick Marryat

... my folly; but I believed him then, and followed him. He brought me here, he told me your chest was full of gold that would make men of us for life. At that I saw my fault, sir, and drew my cutlass; and he, in the wink of an eye, roared out for help, leaped at my throat like a weasel, and had me rolling on the floor. He was quick, and I, as I tell you, sir, was off ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson

... him for a moment, and lowered his voice. "See, now, b'y," said he, "I'm strong for mindin' me own business, but a wink's as good as a nod to a blind horse. Nobody's been hurted hereabouts yet, but keep at ut and some wan will be. I don't want ut to be you or Casey. Go ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm

... fell upon Billiard's face, just in time to see him wink wickedly at Toady, and her good resolutions abruptly took wing. "But you deserved every bit you got," she finished fiercely, "and the next time I'll souse you in the ...
— Tabitha's Vacation • Ruth Alberta Brown

... rosy with the sunset light; even the rising dust was golden. The sky overhead was the palest of dusky whites. It was not a sky: it was just Eternity. Out of it, infinitely far, yet comparatively close, a few stars were beginning to wink. ...
— "Contemptible" • "Casualty"

... went out. There was one flash of lightning, then horror of darkness. The man's life had shocked to a halt. He did not stir, he did not wink, he did ...
— The Gentleman - A Romance of the Sea • Alfred Ollivant

... Temple, well pleased that murder should go on at its threshold. They had better have rescued the victim. Time was when the altar was a sanctuary for the criminal who could grasp its horns, but now its ministers wink at bloodshed with secret approval. Paul could easily have been killed in the crowd, and no responsibility for his death have clung to any single hand. No doubt that was the cowardly calculation which they made, and they were well on the way ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... The robber chief was very early astir that morning, and marched with his host so silently through the forest, that the very birds on the boughs gave them, as they passed underneath, but a sleepy wink of one eye and thrust their beaks ...
— The Hot Swamp • R.M. Ballantyne

... his pipe in the arm-chair, Paul's mother knitting,—Bruno by Paul's side, wagging his tail and watching Muff in the opposite corner rolling her great round yellow eyes. Bruno was always ready to give Muff battle whenever Paul tipped him the wink ...
— Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1 - An Illustrated Magazine • Various

... He had not slept a wink. It was perhaps the longest and most irksome journey he ever took. He was bubbling with the desire to get ...
— Charles Frohman: Manager and Man • Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman

... belonged to Caroline Penny. And she married a Quaker, too; a David Forsythe." She stopped suddenly, and Howat Penny recalled the tradition that Caroline Penny, Gilbert's daughter, had appropriated her sister Myrtle's suitor. Mariana favoured him with a fleet glance, the quiver of a reprehensible wink. He glared back at her choking with suppressed wrath. "I have a wonderful idea for to-morrow," she proceeded tranquilly; "we'll take lunch, and leave Honduras, and go to Myrtle Forge for ...
— The Three Black Pennys - A Novel • Joseph Hergesheimer

... I journeyed for a year's space and returning, opened my shop; whereupon, behold, the woman came up to me and said, 'This is none other than a great absence.' Quoth I, 'I have been on a journey;' and she said, 'Why didst thou wink at the Turcoman?' 'God forbid!' answered I. 'I did not wink at him.' Quoth she, 'Beware lest thou cross me;' and ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

... you like," answered Druce, "and if you need a body guard," he added, with a knowing wink, ...
— Little Lost Sister • Virginia Brooks

... really cared for the pale, thin woman; but she had a quiet way of managing, inch by inch, to attain the end she aimed at. She had caught him by appearing humble and patient; so humble and patient that he fancied she would make a submissive wife—a wife who would let him go his own way and would wink at his shortcomings. For he had never had the smallest intention ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein

... her guardian, Honor slowly walked towards the door of the entrance, followed by many an admiring glance from the other passengers. They found Nanette rubbing her tell-tale eyes, and avowing that she had not "slept a wink" all day. ...
— Honor Edgeworth • Vera

... eyelid of the boy's left eye was a brown spot as big as an apple-seed. And this gave him a strange expression which was hard to forget. When he was grave, as now, it made him seem about to cry. If he should smile, the spot would give the mischievous look of a wink. But Gigi so seldom smiled in those days that few perhaps had noted this. On his left cheek was a dark spot also. But this was only a bruise. Bruises Gigi always had. But they were not always in the ...
— John of the Woods • Abbie Farwell Brown

... reproachfully, but did not speak for a moment. Then her cheeks flushed, and seeming unable to repress the speech, she exclaimed, "Well, I'm thankful enough he did let the poor things take their furniture. I'd never have slept a wink an that bedstead, I know, if it had ha' been left here. It's bad enough to take ...
— Ramona • Helen Hunt Jackson

... his queer clothes, and reputation as a character, drew others toward him. He lilted heavily across the Paddock with a word to one, a nod to another, a wink for a third, talking all the time and breathing like a grampus, with a little crowd of tittering nondescripts swirling in his wake and hanging ...
— Boy Woodburn - A Story of the Sussex Downs • Alfred Ollivant

... experiment. In ten days they begin to fancy themselves ladies and gentlemen—the men have Don tacked to their name; and they either marry and set up shops, or become unbearably insolent. A tolerable French cook may occasionally be had, but you must pay his services their weight in gold, and wink at his extortions and robberies. There are one or two French restaurans, who will send you in a very good dinner at an extravagant price: and it is common in foreign houses, especially amongst the English, to adopt this plan whenever they give a ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca

... maintains as profound a calm as the Speaker 'in another place.' The most perfect order is preserved. The Speaker or deputy, who seems to know all about it, rolls silently in his chair: he is a fat dark man, with a small and rather sleepy eye, such as I have seen come to the surface and wink lazily at the fashionable people clustered round a certain tank in the Zoological Gardens. He re-folds his newspaper from time to time until deep in the advertisements. The waiters silently remove empty tumblers and tankards, and replace them full. But My Grand commands profound attention from ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... them as in a mouse-trap, and leave them no outlet for escape," said Major Teimer, with a shrewd wink. "Is not that your ...
— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach

... Quick as a wink, all the dolls took the same positions in which they had been placed by Marcella, for they did not wish really truly people to know ...
— Raggedy Ann Stories • Johnny Gruelle

... the Captain, with a timid wink, 'go afore, my lad. Sing out, "good-bye, Captain Cuttle," when you're in the passage, and shut the door. Then wait at the corner of the street 'till ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... Miss Corny. "So late as this! I don't know that they have boiling water. You'd never sleep a wink all night, ma'am, if you took ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... men? A warrant for the apprehension of George Fox, MY GUEST? Are my brother Justices not aware then that I am a Justice too, and Vice-Chancellor of the county to boot? Under this roof a man is safe, were he fifty times a Quaker. But, since ye are here' (this with a nod and a wink, as the constables followed the Judge up the flagged path and by a side door into his oak-panelled study), 'since ye are here, men, I will give you other warrants a-plenty to execute instead. Those riotous folk at Walney Island are well known to me of old. It is ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin

... teeth, And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face, and a little round belly That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump—a right jolly old elf; And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside ...
— The Elson Readers, Book 5 • William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck

... ulster is above my ears, my cap is pulled over my eyes, my feet are on a hot-water tin, and my rug snugly envelops most of me. Sleeping-cars are for the strange beings who love not the act of travelling. Them I should spurn even if I could not sleep a wink in an ordinary compartment. I would liefer forfeit sleep than the consciousness of travelling. But it happens that I, in an ordinary compartment, am blest both with the sleep and with the consciousness, all through ...
— Yet Again • Max Beerbohm

... There is something else you wanted to say?" "No," said the Mede, "it is only such a long, long while since we met." "Such a little, little while you mean, my kinsman," answered Cyrus. "A little while!" repeated the other. "How can you say that? Cannot you understand that the time it takes to wink is a whole eternity if it severs me from the beauty ...
— Cyropaedia - The Education Of Cyrus • Xenophon

... it hard to leave the rice fields in the South," Mr. Red-winged Blackbird observed with a knowing wink at old Mr. Crow, as the two stopped for a chat on the morning after May Day. "It's rice-planting time in the South," Mr. Red-winged Blackbird explained. "Somewhat like corn-planting time here!" ...
— The Tale of Bobby Bobolink - Tuck-me-In Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey

... iconoclastically still,—when told of golden harvests to be reaped, "And for vat den? I can't play on more dan von fioleen at a time—is it? I got a good one now. And if I drink more beer dan now, I might make myself seeck!" This with a prodigiously sly wink ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield

... he soberly doth wink, And shut his ugly mug, And patiently doth wait until There comes ...
— Beautiful Joe - An Autobiography of a Dog • by Marshall Saunders

... Christmas at his place, and he's asked me to assist at the theatricals he spoke of. Nothing would satisfy him till I consented, and I must honestly say I am very sorry I ever did, for I expect I shall be pretty bad. I know I have scarcely slept a wink these last few nights, trying to get the words ...
— The Ghost of Jerry Bundler • W. W. Jacobs and Charles Rock

... came vehemently—no, no, and no again! He had nothing in common with the girl. He recited a score of her simple, silly opinions in self-defence, and, having strenuously reasserted his freedom, turned over to sleep, and slept never a wink all night. What disturbed him most was the fear of meeting Lucy Woodrow again. Perhaps she would avoid him now. There was no comfort in the thought. He knew that what had happened must alter their relations towards each other, but could neither admit ...
— In the Roaring Fifties • Edward Dyson

... I want to say to you, Mr. Locke," began Eva, with a wink and a smile at him, "and it grieves ...
— The Master Mystery • Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey

... me, Miss Burney,—pray tell me! indeed, this is quite too bad; I sha'n't have a wink of sleep all night! If I have offended you, I am very sorry indeed; but I am ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... God bless you! you're always kindness itself," cried Valentine; "I'll find out Mrs. Peckover, and let her know. Not a wink of sleep for me to-night—never mind!" Here Valentine suddenly shut the door, then as suddenly opened it again, and added, "I mean to finish that infernal horse-picture to-morrow, and go to the circus again in the evening." With these words he vanished; and they heard him soon ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins

... you'll stand by me, and help me back when I give you the wink. I won't go down till dinner's ready; after it's over you can help me out under some tree. I'm just wild to ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe

... the terrible secret shared by them, keeps both from sleeping. Neither gets so much as a wink. ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... o'er his mind like consciousness of truth, Or like a sunbeam through a lowering sky, It gave him youth again, and ecstacy; He joy'd to see them in this favourite spot, Who of fourscore, or fifty score, would not? He wink'd, he nodded, and then raised his hand,— 'Twas seen and answer'd by the Oakly band. Forth leap'd the light of heart and light of heel, E'en stiff limb'd age the kindling joy could feel. They form'd, while yet the music started ...
— May Day With The Muses • Robert Bloomfield

... stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself. A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I ...
— The Night Before Christmas and Other Popular Stories For Children • Various

... play it expressly to drive us away," said Massin; "for I saw him give that little minx a wink as ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac

... young, there is never a muscle or a fold of garment out of place. The first tableau represents Adam and Eve driven from Eden by the angel with the flaming sword. It was not easy to believe that these figures were real. They were as changeless as wax. They did not even wink. The critic may notice that the hands of the women are large and brown, and the children's faces not free from sunburn. But there is no other hint that these exquisite pictures are made up from the village boys ...
— The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches • David Starr Jordan

... room, through the butler's pantry, but he was back again in a wink, his eyes round. "Why, say, mother! You've got out the best dishes, and the silver, and the candles, and all. And the tablecloth with the do-dads on ...
— Half Portions • Edna Ferber

... yes!" whispered the old lady, lowering her voice, "what a dreadful thing that was, four men killed and eight or nine now in the hospital. My poor husband has had hardly a wink of sleep since the event, and the Premier is ill in bed through ...
— Jennie Baxter, Journalist • Robert Barr

... forces against me," Mrs. McKaye protested, and in her voice was the well-known note that presaged tears should she be opposed further. The Laird, all too familiar with this truly feminine type of tyranny, indicated to his son, by a lightning wink, that he desired the conversation diverted into other channels, whereupon Donald favored his mother with a ...
— Kindred of the Dust • Peter B. Kyne

... Hannah's late husband?" inquired the Reb with almost a wink, for everything combined to make him jolly as a sandboy. "I understand he is ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... I with a foxy wink. Don't you think because I am a countryman I gambol exclusively on the green. I am not altogether to the emerald by a pailful! I've got you where I want you, and you know it! Quit your fooling and hand over the wallet! There's a cop over there now,' ...
— The Statesmen Snowbound • Robert Fitzgerald

... lodgings, Flora exclaimed: "O Mamita Lila, we have heard such heavenly music, and a voice so wonderfully like Rosa's! I don't believe I shall sleep a wink to-night." ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child

... to bed," Fitz said in a positive tone. "I shouldn't sleep a wink if I knew you were thrashing around on that shake-down, and you wouldn't either. Good-night"; and holding out his hand to his host, he gave me a tap on my shoulder as he passed my chair and left the room, ...
— Colonel Carter's Christmas and The Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gentleman • F. Hopkinson Smith

... See one start slow, Shyly shrink, Fearful lest his end be woe, Sheepish slink, Skates on unaccustomed toe Strangely clink, Hot and thirsty he will grow, Long for drink; All around amusement show, Laugh and wink, But they look as black as crow, Or as ink, If he fall against them. Oh, In a twink On the floor, not soft but low, See him sink! Whilst he murmurs gently, "Blow ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 3, 1892 • Various

... gave a knowing wink and touched his hat. Berrington lay back inside the hansom abstractedly, smoking a cigarette that he had lighted. His bronzed face was unusually pale and thoughtful; it was evident that he felt himself on no ordinary errand, though the situation appeared to be perfectly prosaic. One does not usually ...
— The Slave of Silence • Fred M. White

... most unfit to suffer poor men, younger brothers and soldiers at all to marry, as also diseased persons, votaries, priests, servants. Therefore as well to keep and ease the one as the other, they tolerate and wink at these kind of brothel-houses and stews. Many probable arguments they have to prove the lawfulness, the necessity, and a toleration of them, as of usery; and without question in policy they are not to be contradicted, but ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... Avenue isn't so far away as you think," he equivocated. "It's just around the corner—of the world. What's eight or nine thousand miles to a district messenger boy? I ring for one and he fetches the candy, before you can wink your eye or say Jack Robinson. It's a ...
— Truxton King - A Story of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... for such he happened to be, as a hostage till the sugar and coffee came. Then he told them that he was going behind a rock to lie down, cautioning them not to move for an hour. That was an unnecessary bluff, for they did not wink an eye till sundown. Later than this he stole a girl in broad daylight in the face of a San Carlos camp and dragged her up the rocks. Here he was attacked by fifteen or twenty bucks, whom he stood off until darkness. When they reached his lair ...
— Crooked Trails • Frederic Remington

... out and began to run his grass rope, yard by yard, through his hands, searching carefully for any flaw. A canyon wren made the air sweet above him, while the morning sun began to wink and blink against the shadows which still lay against the face of the guardian cliffs. Kirby glanced at ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... in which Grant found himself was increasing. Many of his necessary articles and much of his clothing that he would require on the trip were contained in the missing bag. He was unable to see the sly wink which John gave Fred when the ...
— Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motorboat • Ross Kay

... long life has been a miracle of beauty and grace, and who has contrived to instil into his very controversies more of the spirit of Christ than most men can find room for in their prayers. But the dilemma is an awkward one. Does the Madonna wink, or is ...
— Obiter Dicta • Augustine Birrell

... something. Why did he say bluntly, 'With her'? Why did Zametov add that I spoke artfully? Why do they speak in that tone? Yes, the tone.... Razumihin is sitting here, why does he see nothing? That innocent blockhead never does see anything! Feverish again! Did Porfiry wink at me just now? Of course it's nonsense! What could he wink for? Are they trying to upset my nerves or are they teasing me? Either it's ill fancy or they know! Even Zametov is rude.... Is Zametov rude? Zametov has changed his mind. I foresaw he would change his mind! He is at home here, ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... doing what I ought, and if I had wondered where a body was going and the body had come back expressly to tell me, I think I 'd have the politeness not to laugh if the body happened to lose his balance and fall,—especially when the body was going to get up in less time than it would take me to wink,—I being only a little girl, and he being a most respected member of the Busy-bee Society. However, I suppose one must make allowances for the way in which children are brought up nowadays. When I was ...
— Dreamland • Julie M. Lippmann

... the landlady of the inn greeted each other with a wink of the eye. It was a long time since she had seen Madame; she had no idea who the two young gentlemen were, but anyway they were dear little angels. Madame Ewans ordered the meal like a connoisseur, with a ...
— The Aspirations of Jean Servien • Anatole France

... so droll and gave such a large wink at the word "if," that Katy and Clover felt their hearts lighten surprisingly, and finished the packing in better spirits. The good-by, however, was a sorry affair. The girls cried; Dorry and Phil sniffed and looked fiercely at Miss Inches; old Mary stood on the steps with her apron ...
— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge

... light, hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing marvellous dexterity in casting the points of their long, heavy whips at the thinnest part of any dog's skin who dared to straggle from the main body, or to take the slightest notice, or even so much as wink at the hares and rabbits starting ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... close to her father's wing, as they entered, shaking hands gravely with the men by the door, and with Mrs. Brown—which latter proceeding she privately considered a joke. The boys followed; Jim quiet and pleasant; Wally favouring Murty O'Toole with a solemn wink, and Cecil plainly bored by the little ceremony. He let his fingers lie in each man's hand languidly—and would probably have been injured had he seen Murty wipe his hand carefully on the side of his trousers after he had passed ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... Franco-Russian rapprochement and consequent fetes, the drawing of the Bear and Republic in cordial tete-a-tete, the former disclosing the true source and object of his new-found affection by hinting, with a sly wink and a smirk, about a "little loan," gave rise to real anger, and was deeply resented—probably with the more annoyance that the cutting truth with which Punch had hit off the situation was secretly and unwillingly ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... original. He could do nothing like an ordinary man, and he did everything jocosely, with a wink and a chuckle. To watch him, you might suppose that business was a first-class practical joke, and he invariably wound up a hard bargain by slapping his victim on the back. Some called him Funny Pinsent, others The Bester. Few liked ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... there," said one, a gentleman whose face was a slight improvement over gross ignorance and sensuality. He always wore a silk hat of most imposing proportions. "We can have a good time." His left eye moved with just the semblance of a wink. "You ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser

... apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. I was planing once when the plane flew out of my hands and hit the window; it broke the glass. The squire was a Lett, his name Shtoppev[1]; and he had an expression on his face as if he were going to wink and say: "Wouldn't it be nice to have a drink?" In the evenings he drank, drank by ...
— Note-Book of Anton Chekhov • Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

... was let to handle it, to learn its parts, to burnish it, and by-and-bye—I could not have been more than six years old—to rest it on a rock and fire it off. It kicked my shoulder roughly in firing, but I know I did not wink as I pulled the trigger. Then I got a wild hunger to fire it at all times; so much so, indeed, that powder and shot were locked up, and the musket was put away in my grandfather's chest. But now and again it was taken out, and ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... ez kittens. Ole Brer Rabbit wuz off som'ers, en Brer Wolf en Brer Fox wuz waitin' fer 'im. De little Rabs wuz playin' 'roun', en dough dey wuz little dey kep' der years open. Brer Wolf look at um out'n de cornder uv his eyes, en lick his chops en wink at Brer Fox, en Brer Fox wunk back at 'im. Brer Wolf cross his legs, en den Brer Fox cross his'n. De little Rabs, ...
— The Book of Stories for the Storyteller • Fanny E. Coe

... not wink at you." She then sat still five minutes longer; but unable to waste such a precious occasion, she suddenly got up, and saying to Kitty, "Come here, my love, I want to speak to you," took her out of the room. Jane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth which spoke ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... in the right little finger unconsciously shifted to the left little finger. He says he had nightmare continuously, but "had not slept a wink." Breakfast, of course, in bed. No appetite for anything save muffins, herrings, and marmalade on buttered toast. Unable to move until one o'clock, when he thought (at the suggestion of his mother) that a visit to the Crystal Palace might probably ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, January 18, 1890 • Various

... harsh again as he turned to his prisoners, "go along, one wink of your eyelid in the wrong direction ...
— Lucia Rudini - Somewhere in Italy • Martha Trent

... gettin' worse so I waited until we worked out away a few yards up a little rise on the side of the mountain. The men all the while pretended that they thought it was a joke, and then when I got just to the right place, quick as a wink I jumped up and yelled at my horse in the loudest tones I could muster, and when little Zeke really tries hard to make himself heard there isn't usually much trouble in hearing him. I struck my horses with my whip at the ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and Simon's Mine • Ross Kay

... er sung Ole Dan Tucker ter a harrycane. De udder creeturs wuz too busy wid der fussin' fer ter 'spon' unto de Crawfishes. So dar dey wuz, de Crawfishes, en dey didn't know w'at minnit wuz gwineter be de nex'; en dey kep' on gittin madder en madder en skeerder en skeerder, twel bimeby dey gun de wink ter de Mud Turkle en de Spring Lizzud, en den dey bo'd little holes in de groun' en ...
— Uncle Remus • Joel Chandler Harris

... touching in her incoherent earnestness, which made the Colonel smile, yet wink away some moisture from his eyes, as he again thanked her without either acceptance or refusal. Then he said he was going to Belforest, and asked whether she would not like to come and look over the place. He would go back and call for her with ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge

... French buck, whom we will willingly suppose harmless, you see specimens of the French raff, who goes aux eaux: gambler, speculator, sentimentalist, duellist, travelling with madame his wife, at whom other raffs nod and wink familiarly. This rogue is much more picturesque and civilized than the similar person in our own country: whose manners betray the stable; who never reads anything but Bell's Life; and who is much more at ease in conversing with a groom than with his employer. Here ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray

... these literary bravos, WILLIAM GRUBLET held a high place. At the University, where he had pursued a dull and dingy career of modified respectability, not much was thought or spoken of GRUBLET. If he was asked what profession he proposed to adopt, he would wink knowingly, and reply, "Journalism." It sounded well—it gave an impression of influence, and future power, and, moreover, it committed him to nothing. It is just as easy to say "Journalism," in answer to the stock question, as it is to deliver yourself over, by ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, Sep. 24, 1892 • Various

... They think when they go up in the Adirondacks and chew down some trees with an axe, that they are chopping wood, but their guides who lie around smoking their pipes while the sportsmen sweat over the task, know better and slyly wink at each other while they praise aloud ...
— Dick in the Everglades • A. W. Dimock



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