winks

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wink.

   Whenever the magician winks, the audience knows a trick is coming.

   The traffic light winks amber before it turns red.

   Note

   It shares its spelling with the plural noun but works as a verb after a singular subject: she winks, the light winks. Followed by at, it often means looking the other way rather than signaling. A manager who winks at late arrivals is tolerating them, not flirting. Lamps, stars and screens can wink too, gleaming fitfully, so the subject need not have an eye at all.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of wink.

   Several winks across the table told her the deal was settled.

   His rapid winks betrayed an old nervous habit.

   Note

   The plural is where the sleep meaning settles. Forty winks is a short nap, and the idiom is fixed in this form. The same plural also names the small discs of tiddlywinks. Elsewhere it simply counts one-eyed signals. Several winks across a table are messages, while forty winks is rest, and the number in that phrase is not meant to be counted.

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