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Wink at   /wɪŋk æt/   Listen
Wink at

verb
1.
Give one's silent approval to.  Synonym: connive at.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Wink at" Quotes from Famous Books



... Minorca has against him, and for that reason I figured the greaser was the only man who could bluff him. While I gave him orders to shoot, I told him distinctly not to hit anybody. Good Lord, Shirley, surely you do not think I would wink at a murder!" ...
— The Valley of the Giants • Peter B. Kyne

... wink at his guest, and remarked, "Women-folks are ginerally glad enough to have niggers to wait on 'em; but ever sence that gal come into the house, my old woman's been in a desperate hurry to have me sell her. But such an article don't lose nothing ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various

... take sides in any marital controversy," Hollis told them. "I don't care to parade my ignorance. However," he smiled, with a wink at Norton, "most men need a boss, if for no other reason than to teach them the ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer

... confinement again. This might hold, were it not, that the comparison must suggest, that the power which has cast him down could be deluded, and the under-keepers or jaylors, under whose charge he was in custody, could wink at his excursions, and the Lord of the place know nothing of the matter. But this wants ...
— The History of the Devil - As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts • Daniel Defoe

... Beamish disapproved of his evening outings. "Many an 'usband takes to goin' out at such a time, my dear, an' never gets back the 'abit of stoppin' at 'ome. So just you be careful, ducky!" This was a standing joke between them. Mahony would wink at Polly when he put his hat on, ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... warm night; there is a little frosty crispness in the air, but I am burning. I am talking quickly and articulately to myself all the time, under my breath; it seems to me to relieve a little the inarticulate thoughts. I will not wink at it any longer, indeed I will not; nobody could expect it of me. I will not be taken in by that transparent fallacy of old friends! Nobody but me is. They all see it; Algy, Musgrave, all of them. At the thought of the victory written in Musgrave's eyes just now—at the recollection ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... passionate words," said Hermia: "I scorn you not; it seems you scorn me." "Ay, do," returned Helena, "persevere, counterfeit serious looks, and make mouths at me when I turn my back; then wink at each other, and hold the sweet jest up. If you had any pity, grace, or manners, you would not ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb

... refuse when I know your fame as a cook?" he said with a smile at Becky and a wink at Chris, and put his horny forefinger and thumb the distance of a thread apart. "But a crumb, Mistress Becky. A morsel. A taste. Just to pay my respects to your art, as ...
— Mr. Wicker's Window • Carley Dawson

... appellation of droll dog however was repeated, till the two gentlemen could appease their titillation. I own I thought it a little rude; but they seemed neither of them so well-bred as the lady, and I concluded they could be nothing more than travelling acquaintance. I even supposed I saw them wink at each other, as if there had been something strange ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft

... the culprits' red faces grew even redder, and after a wink at the court wit, Nick went on: "I intend to take off for Moscow after a quick look about with Mulcie and Belial. Incidentally, my compliments on the good work you did ...
— Satan and the Comrades • Ralph Bennitt

... his brows and looked vacantly up through the leafy roof of the bower, as if in profound meditation. Some of the brighter stars were beginning to twinkle in the darkening sky by that time, and one of them seemed to wink at him encouragingly, for he suddenly turned to the middy with all the energy of his nature, exclaiming, "I's got it!" and brought his great palm down on his greater thigh with ...
— The Middy and the Moors - An Algerine Story • R.M. Ballantyne

... help it, and therefore were compelled to wink at it; the criminals were beyond its reach. But now I will proceed to give you some further insight, by describing the Dutch boors, or planters, who usurped and stood in the shoes ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... and slowly give way to a delicate little wink in my direction, but never a smile at what was all so really funny. I've no doubt she often got me to do what she thought right in just the same way—a mon insu—and shot her little wink at Barty. ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier

... have thought would have softened stones, left her unfeeling audience not only unmoved, but apparently even unobservant. From sheer decency, Henry would flute out something to show that her suffering was not lost on him; but it is to be feared the young ones would only wink at each other at this ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne

... exactly. But there!" with a wink at Parker, "you see I've been off amongst all them Kanaka women and how do you know but I've ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln

... trivial character of these memories. He muttered something about the weight of the Lord, and the carnal hearts of the men in ships. Jeremy declared, "Stuff! He'll wink at a sailor man with hardly a free day on shore. It wasn't bad at Calcutta, either, with an awning on the quarter-deck, watching the carriages and syces in the Maidan and maybe a corpse or two floating about the gangway from ...
— Java Head • Joseph Hergesheimer

... in spite of his own tears, and bade the unfortunate man take heart of grace and be gone. "I shall soon be back with you again, and then you can stare at me to your heart's content, and never wink at all." ...
— Cyropaedia - The Education Of Cyrus • Xenophon

... me speak to your yaya alone?" These words he accompanied with a knowing wink at the young man. It amused Okoya to see that his uncle came so decidedly post festum in the matter, but he at once rose and ...
— The Delight Makers • Adolf Bandelier

... that he could "streak it" as close to the margin of the speed limit as the law dared wink at, even in the case of the well-known red limousine, and in a little over ten minutes pulled up before the park gates. Narkom jumped out, beckoned Sir Henry to follow him, and together they hurried into the ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... gone, and, tying its cord about his waist, went a step or two into the corridor to look out for his visitor. A few minutes elapsed; then the lift came up, and the waiter, killing two birds with one stone, appeared again, escorting the detective and carrying a tray. And Allerdyke, with a sly wink at Chettle, greeted him unconcernedly, ushered him into his room and chatted about nothing until the waiter had gone away. Then ...
— The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation • J. S. Fletcher

... Professor, see here—" He stopped. He saw Matthews grin and wink at Jimmy. Professor Brierly was oblivious ...
— Death Points a Finger • Will Levinrew

... believes that there is something very important going on in politics. But we, the initiated, know that the document is the law of the N.R.I. Dining Club. Then, when all eyes are fastened on him, he puts the paper deliberately back in his pocket, with a sly wink at the members. ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone

... was answered by the slightest beginning of laugh from the insulted one, "I don't believe Bob wants to do without that bouquet and veil and supper either. They are just the greatest things that ever happen to a man"—another wink at Bob—"and Bob don't want to give them up. Now suppose you go on back home to-night and don't say anything to your mother about the matter, and to-morrow I'll ask Mr. Crabtree to step over and make ...
— Rose of Old Harpeth • Maria Thompson Daviess

... even went and informed the Commandant's wife that the weight of the chest gave him reason to think there was something suspicious contained in it, and that it would be proper to have it opened. She would not; whether it was that she was willing to wink at the thing, or through negligence: she told him that Grotius' wife had assured her there was nothing but books in it; and that they might carry it to the boat. It is affirmed that a soldier's wife ...
— The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius • Jean Levesque de Burigny

... way to maintain in thy soul always a fear of sinning against God. Christians do not wink at, or give way to sin, until their hearts begin to lose their tenderness. A tender heart will be affected at the sin of another, much more it will be afraid of committing of sin itself (2 ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... formerly would not have rubbed elbows under any considerations sit side by side in the railway cars—and they prefer to do it rather than travel a week by bullock-cart to reach a place which is but a few hours by train. Consequently the priests have had to wink at "breaking caste" in this way, just as they had to get around the use of waterworks in Calcutta. According to the strict letter of the law a Hindu may not drink water which has been handled by a man of lower caste (in Muttra I have seen Brahmins hired to give water to passersby), ...
— Where Half The World Is Waking Up • Clarence Poe

... described them as corrupt and venal, ready to wink at the scandalous abuses and the violations of the Spanish laws, which were daily perpetrated under their very eyes, consenting the while to fill their own pockets with a share of ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt

... will dry up and blow away with the wind, or go to heaven in a 'Chariot of Fire.'" Turning to the doctor Joe continued: "You know Will has a girl, and he is awful pious. If one looks off his book in church, even to wink at his best girl, he thinks it an awful sin. And that the guilty one should be dipped in holy water, or ...
— Short Story Writing - A Practical Treatise on the Art of The Short Story • Charles Raymond Barrett

... first act, on being inducted into these comfortable quarters in his Majesty's Tower, was to bribe his keeper to wink at his peccadilloes. A few cups of that supernumerary sack, and an occasional piece of silver, were worth expending on the safe carriage of his letters and other necessities which might in time arise. He made affectionate ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt

... poor natives are thus harshly treated, the Dutch wink at the faults of their countrymen, who are seldom punished for any crime, unless it be for murder, as in any other case they get off for a small sum of money, even for a great fault. The women slaves belonging to the free Dutch burgesses have all reasonable indulgence, but are obliged ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... through his ante-room, with a wink at the boy, a nod to the stenographer, and a word of greeting to his private secretary, and entered his office, he was surprised to find the communicating door open, and to hear the sound of a vaguely familiar voice in the Governor's ...
— The Lieutenant-Governor • Guy Wetmore Carryl

... Scouts," chuckled Sure Pop with a wink at Bob, "unless you count us boys till we're ninety-nine years old! Girls are scouts, too, in ...
— Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts • Roy Rutherford Bailey

... there so very wrong in my inviting you all to come and take a cup of tea with my Aunt?" said Dubkoff, with a wink at Woloda. "If you don't like us going, it is your affair; yet we are going all the ...
— Youth • Leo Tolstoy

... I feel for you. I feel with you, but these facts are all in the possession of the Secretary of War. Mr. Boone will no doubt give you all the details. If it can be made to seem as you say, have no fear that I will wink at mere revenge, or make the machinery of justice an instrument of family feuds. Get your lawyer; have the matter investigated, and rely upon me for every proper clemency and aid in ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan

... any transactions of life, if so be their liberty did not extend to railing; which makes me wonder at the tender-eared humour of this age, which will admit of no address without the prefatory repetition of all formal titles; nay, you may find some so preposterously devout, that they will sooner wink at the greatest affront against our Saviour, than be content that a prince, or a pope, should be nettled with the least joke or gird, especially in what relates to their ordinary customs. But he who so blames men's irregularities as to lash at no one particular person by ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus

... be found sitting,—so she calls it by courtesy,—but, in fact, pressing and breaking of it down with her enormous settlement; as both those Foundations, who, however, are good-natured enough to wink at it, have found, I believe, to their cost. Here she taketh the fresh air, principally at vacation times, when the walks are freest from interruption of the younger fry of students. Here she passeth her idle hours, not idly, but generally accompanied with a book,—blest, if she can but ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 72, October, 1863 • Various

... color, while cream color enlarges. The same with black satin. Satin, being full of lights and shades, is uncertain in size, and it is preferable to silk or velvet, which makes the person thicker. The jets are dressy, wicked little ornaments that wink at you unexpectedly ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... expression, "They had it in for the railroads." "They pay me their fare in cash, and when I give them the receipt they tear up the receipt and wink at me. I always feel," he said, "like resenting these actions, because I know that they are incitements to petty theft, but now," he said, "I have my chance. I always tell them," said the conductor, "that money belongs ...
— The Blot on the Kaiser's 'Scutcheon • Newell Dwight Hillis

... steering us up against a haunted mine, are you?" asked George with a wink at his chum. "That would be too good ...
— The Call of the Beaver Patrol - or, A Break in the Glacier • V. T. Sherman

... unmistakable brogue of an Irishman. "Faith, it must be the gintleman has somethin' very important along wid him in the carriage, that he's gittin' so excited about; and its meself that'll not see the gintleman imposed upon, sure." This with a wink at his comrades. Then to the occupant of the carriage: "What did yer honor say might be yer name, now? It's very partickler the General is about insthructin' us ter ax the names of thim that's wantin' an' ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... this voyage, and the captain, he put him out no end because he wouldn't let him have it. Yes, sir. And he bears a grudge against the mate, he does, him and that sly friend of his, Kipping. Perhaps you didn't see Kipping wink at the second mate after he was called down. I did, and I says to myself then, says I, 'There's going to be troublous times ere this voyage ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... that time of life, though I thought it right for every man to be brave and good; and I could not help asking who the young lady was, as if that were part of the heroism. The Sawyer, who never was unready for a joke, of however ancient quality, gave a great wink at Firm (which I failed to understand), and asked him how much the young lady was worth. He expected that Firm would say, "Five hundred thousand dollars"—which was about her value, I believe—and Uncle Sam wanted me to hear it; not that he cared a single cent ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore

... Dan?" persisted Birdie, adding, with a mischievous wink at the white-coated clerk, "Give him a ginger ale; he ...
— Calvary Alley • Alice Hegan Rice

... was as unscientific a person as ever lived, yawned, and Edmund noticed it. But he showed no irritation, merely smiling, and saying, with a wink at me ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss

... but in the wildness there was a touch of man's deceiving art. They crossed a small river and caught sight of a barefooted boy trying to steal a boat. They sped over the prairie and flew past an old Dutch windmill. It was an odd sight, an un-American glimpse—a wink at a strange land. They commented on everything that whirled within sight—a bend in the road, a crooked Line, a tumble-down fence. They were boys. They talked about names that they held a prejudice against, and occasionally one of them would ...
— The Colossus - A Novel • Opie Read

... its own merits, and for its supposed crushing exposure of the iniquities of the Dutch government of Java. Greatly to my surprise, I found it a very tedious and long-winded story, full of rambling digressions; and whose only point is to show that the Dutch Residents and Assistant Residents wink at the extortions of the native princes; and that in some districts the natives have to do work without payment, and have their goods taken away from them without compensation. Every statement of this kind is thickly interspersed with ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... to concur, was thus exposed to the loss of his appointment of ambassador to France; to imprisonment, and to a long persecution;—and lord Montjoy might have suffered even capitally, had not his good and acceptable service in Ireland induced the queen to wink at former offences. Cuff, the secretary of the earl, whom he sent for to exhort him to imitate his sincerity, sternly upbraided his master with his altered mind, and his treachery towards those who had evinced the ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... time, a bloodvessel burst, or fright destroyed her, or any thing but the bloody hand of "Rebecca." Though, as the slugs were actually found in the lungs, the hope they "dressed themselves in" was as "drunk," as swinishly stupid, as their design was unmanly, inhuman, and devilish—to wink at this horror! to huddle up this murder, and hurry into the earth a murdered woman, as if she had lived ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 • Various

... it would not be kindness to wink at his errors and leave him free to continue in the practice of them, to his own and others' injury. Having forfeited his right to the confidence of this community by trespassing upon it, let him pay the penalty of that trespass. It will be to ...
— Heart-Histories and Life-Pictures • T. S. Arthur

... of every man's knowledge and feeling, just as we now not only know that it is good for our health to be cleanly, but feel that cleanliness is only another word for comfort, which is the under-side or lining of all pleasure; so long, I say as men wink at their own knowingness, or hold their heads high because they have got an advantage over their fellows; so long class interest will be in danger of making itself felt injuriously. No set of men will get any sort of power without being in danger of wanting ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... demanding him. He waved his hand to indicate it was nothing which they would know anything about, resumed his seat, served himself to a second spoon of salmon and remarked, "More roast duck, anybody?" in a loud voice and with a slow wink at his wife. That lady at first looked blank, as she always did in the presence of any humour couched with the least indirection, and then drew back her chin and caught her lower lip in her gold-filled teeth. This was ...
— Miss Lulu Bett • Zona Gale

... privilege he always abused by driving a contraband trade on occasions like the present. So great was the fellow's dexterity in such matters, that Raoul—who disdained smuggling, while he thought himself compelled to wink at it in others—had less apprehensions of his committing the lugger than he might have felt in the case of one less cunning. But it was now necessary to get these two men off or abandon them; and fortunately remembering the name of the wine-house where they had taken their ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... 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

... honest, too tyrannical a burden to compel them to be chaste, and 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, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited minister, and they disappeared into the house; but when Margaret went up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more like crying in her life. Chagrin and ...
— A Voice in the Wilderness • Grace Livingston Hill

... when we got them with the show people we would run trains hundreds of miles to see the rarest animals any show ever exhibited to a discriminating public, and we could charge five dollars for tickets, and people would mob each other to get up to the ticket wagon. Then the boys would wink at each other, and tap their foreheads with their fingers, and look at Pa as though they expected he would break out ...
— Peck's Bad Boy With the Cowboys • Hon. Geo. W. Peck

... ever time your basket h'ist de beam of de steelyards to 100, you gits a shinplaster.' I make eighty cents dat year but I have to git up when de chickens crow for day and git in de field when de dew was heavy on de cotton. Does I think dat was cheatin'? Oh, no sir! I wasn't 'ceivin' old marster. Him wink at dat, and take a pound off for dew. I'd a made more money but they took me out de field in November, to drive de mules to de hoss-gin. Dat was play work, just a settin' up dere and poppin' ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration

... like to see them wink at each other, although I know it is funny to hear Mrs. Francis elaborate on the mother's influence in the home and the proper way to deal with selfishness in children; but she means well, and they should remember that, no matter how ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung

... Dorsett. But he's good at duckin' trouble. With a wink at me and a chuckle he remarks: "Torchy, suppose you tell the gentleman ...
— Torchy, Private Sec. • Sewell Ford

... was apparently pleased by the compliment and, with a satisfied wink at Righty, folded his fore legs over his chest and went ...
— Andiron Tales • John Kendrick Bangs

... wants you to show her the towers," explained the old crone with a cunning wink at the girl. "I tell her it's hard for you to leave your candles, especially now when people are coming in for high mass, but I can take your place, and," with a servile ...
— Through the Wall • Cleveland Moffett

... Stand up, dear daughter: though thy fault deserves For to be punisht in the extremest sort, Yet love, that covers multitude of sins, Makes love in parents wink at childrens faults. Sufficeth, Blaunch, thy father loves thee so, Thy follies past he knows but will not know. And here, Duke William, take my daughter to thy wife, For well I am ...
— Fair Em - A Pleasant Commodie Of Faire Em The Millers Daughter Of - Manchester With The Love Of William The Conquerour • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... worked up to think I hadn't heard. Wall, I hadn't more'n got that cake fairly into the oven when the children come, and Elder Minkley and his wife. And I thought they looked queer, and I thought the Elder begun to tell me somethin', and I thought I see Josiah wink at him. But I wouldn't want to take my oath whether he wunk or not, but I ...
— Samantha Among the Brethren, Complete • Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)

... and full of hate to Trevalyon, excited, and as was usual, reckless (knowing also what his plot was for this very night; knowing, too, how that act would be canvassed at dawn; when society! in her chaste morning robe would look shocked at what she would wink at at midnight, and in her robe de chambre), electrified the groups of wasps and butterflies, in their musical mur-mur and whirr-whirr, by standing up and saying, in a ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny

... abhor evil is one of the chief principles of love, it is rare. The principle is too often lost sight of through hypocrisy and false love. We ignore, wink at, even make light of and are undisturbed by the evil deeds of our neighbor. We are unwilling to incur his displeasure by manifesting indignation and offering rebuke for his wickedness, or by withdrawing ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther

... with a glance at Collingwood, "but I'll ask you to believe that your mother could put a totally different aspect and complexion on all her actions and words in connection with the entire affair. My impression, of course," he went on, with something very like a wink at Collingwood, "is that Mrs. Mallathorpe, when she wrote that letter to Pratt, intended to have the bridge mended first thing next morning, and that something prevented that being done, and that when she was seen about ...
— The Talleyrand Maxim • J. S. Fletcher

... like to write you up," I said, with a sly wink at myself. "I imagine you'd attract a good deal of attention in the literary world. Judging from the time it takes you to get ready, you ought to make a good magazine story—not one of those comic ghost -tales that can ...
— Ghosts I have Met and Some Others • John Kendrick Bangs

... countenanced, and patronized them, to get a majority of votes; and what was, in fact, a sacrifice to his own interest, ambition, and corruption, he calls a sacrifice to the Company. He puts, then, this alternative: "Either give everything into my hand, suffer me to go on, and have no control, or else I wink at every species of corruption." It is a remarkable and stupendous thing, that, when all the world was alarmed at the disorders of the Company, when that alarm occasioned his being sent out, and when, in consequence of that alarm, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... the unbutlered, but then he sets you right with a reserve and a sort of sighing patience which one is often moved to admire. And again, the abstract butler never stoops to familiarity. But the coloured gentleman will pass you a wink at a time; he is familiar like an upper-form boy to a fag; he unbends to you like Prince Hal with Poins and Falstaff. He makes himself at home and welcome. Indeed, I may say, this waiter behaved himself to ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... a crop of mustard and cress on it,' said Gilbert, with a wicked wink at Albinia, who was unable to resist joining in the girls' shout of laughing, but she became alarmed when she found that poor Miss Meadows was very near crying, and that her incoherency became so lachrymose ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge

... place. But she resisted the feeling and held her ground. The next moment the woman had entered the theatre. The little party lingered for a few moments, and then the theatre door again opened, and several persons in various stage dresses came out and gazed on the newcomers. Then they began to wink at one another as they stared at Julia, and to break out into a broad grin. How earnestly did the object of their curiosity and merriment long to rush away out of the reach of those mocking eyes and sneering lips! Yet she did not move. A purpose ...
— Amos Huntingdon • T.P. Wilson

... harangue with a wink at the comique and the financier, and for a moment the three exchanged glances, conventional grimaces, 'ha-has!' and 'hum-hums!' and all the usual pantomime expressive of thoughts too deep ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... commissionership yielded. One is reminded of some comic-opera topsyturvyism when the judge tries in vain to get off the bench and be appointed constable. It sounds like the Bab Ballads. The district court is compelled to wink at irregularities of life and conduct in its commissioners because it cannot get men of a higher stamp ...
— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck

... 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 ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca

... against them, and their Worship made. The Heathen Priests were banish'd from the Land Of Baal, no Temple suffer'd was to stand; And all Succeeding Kings made it their Care, They should no more rear up their Altars there. If some mild Kings did wink at their Abode, They to the Jews still prov'd a Pricking-goad: Growing more bold, they penal Laws defy'd, And like tormenting Thorns, stuck in their Side. The busy Priests had lost their gainful Trade, Revenge and Malice do then Hearts invade; And since by Force they can't themselves ...
— Anti-Achitophel (1682) - Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden • Elkanah Settle et al.

... authority. The existence of such a rule is perhaps salutary, as there are conceivable cases in which it would be inexpedient to allow such publication. But, as everybody knew, Parliament had long been accustomed to wink at perpetual violations of this rule. Newspapers all over the world had been permitted, and even encouraged, to transgress it. Some of the leading organs of public opinion in different parts of the world had built up their reputations ...
— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... there, however, was so ardently discussed and prominently kept before the people that while little was done to help the Negroes, much was done to reduce them to the plane of beasts. There was not so much of the tendency to wink at the violation of the law on the part of masters in teaching their slaves. But little could be accomplished by private teachers in the dissemination of information among Negroes after the free persons of color had been excluded from ...
— The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 • Carter Godwin Woodson

... the little canary in my room doesn't wink at me all night so that I can't hear the alarm clock in the morning, I'll tell you ...
— Billy Bunny and Uncle Bull Frog • David Magie Cory

... that reconstruction at the South is hindered to-day for the same reason, responsibility is taken away from a large class of citizens. A disfranchised class is always a restless class; a class that, if it be not as a whole given up to deeds of violence, will at least wink at them, when committed by men either in or out of its own ranks. What the South needs to-day is ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... You've come out here to size things up generally." Luna was not particularly slow in getting on to curves, as he expressed it. "And so you are sizing me up a bit to see do I know my business and have my eyes open." He tipped a knowing wink at Hartwell. Hartwell nodded, with an appreciative grin, but made no further reply. Luna ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason

... de Indias). This council consisted of a certain number of men who resided in Spain, and who either were only in part acquainted with the real state of things in South America, or were bribed by Indian gold to wink at the abuses committed there. From this council were chosen the viceroys and high authorities of the colonies, who, whilst in the exercise of their official functions, amassed enormous wealth by ...
— Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests • J. J. von Tschudi

... there was an end of it; so, innumerable proverbs coming to their aid about "curing and enduring" and "must be's," and the place where "marriages are made," &c., the several aunts and cousins were persuaded at length to wink at the iniquity, and to correspond both with Mrs. James and her backsliding lieutenant. Of the offspring of that marriage, and her orphaned state, and of Mrs. Mackie's care, and the indefinite detention in central Hindostan, ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... till midnight, drank his free beers between each selection, his face as grave as a judge except when he would wink at me out of the corner of his eye to show his intense enjoyment of the whole situation. You can judge of its effect on the audience when I tell you that one young girl in a pink shirt-waist was so overcome with emotion ...
— The Underdog • F. Hopkinson Smith

... second Saturday evening after he got his new position, the tobacconist, a rather obsequious man, called him Mr. Hall. It was the first time such a thing had happened and it upset him a little. He laughed and made a joke of it. "Don't get high and mighty," he said, and turned to wink at the men loafing in the shop. Later he thought about the matter and was sorry he had not accepted the new title without protest. "Well, I'm foreman, and a lot of the young fellows I've always known and fooled around with will be working under ...
— Poor White • Sherwood Anderson

... got my money settled on him, there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob ...
— The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

... Deacon Tubman, I don't know but that you are right!" answered the parson. "Sixty? I don't know as I am sixty." And he began to rub his own hands, and came within an ace of executing a wink at the deacon himself. ...
— How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's - And Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray

... less-disciplined women rejoiced, with a wink at their departing lords, as Mrs. Zebedee set off in chase of her long-striding Daniel. The mother, enriched by home affections and course of duties well performed, was of a rounded and ample figure, while the son was tall, and thin ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... strong arm of the law. It must be remembered that in those days there was no rural constabulary; and the few magistrates left to themselves, and generally related to one another, were most of them inclined to tolerate eccentricity, and to wink at faults ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 1 • Elizabeth Gaskell

... inslave a free people. Their sacrifizing the interest of the nation to France, their violating their oaths and promises, their persecutions and their schemes to establish a religion which in its nature is inconsistent with the toleration of any other, though reasons of state may make it wink at this on particular occasions,—but should I descend to particulars, it would lead me beyond the ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume II. • Mrs. Thomson

... the beggar, with a wink at his comrades, "no insult intended! Only a prudent habit of ours in these days of mixed society. But you are evidently poor and honest. Take a chair on the grass. Honesty we love, and to poverty we have no objection—in ...
— The Unknown Quantity - A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales • Henry van Dyke

... the last word she saw one of the soldiers, a mere boy, lick his lips and give a sort of tragic wink at his companions. A ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... you, Jimmie Batch, that I've been the making of you since that night you threw the wink at me. And—and it hurts, this does. God! ...
— Americans All - Stories of American Life of To-Day • Various

... of her life, and acknowledged to herself that it was better so; but when it came to Jonathan Flint, she had found herself impelled to the impetuous protest for which she already half blamed herself in her heart. But in self-exculpation she argued with the embers, which seemed to wink at her from the hearth, that there were more considerations than one in the matter; that as she had told Mr. Flint, modern life was too complex to be compressed into ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin

... 'When the eyelids wink at a flash of light, or a threatened blow, a reflex action takes place, in which the afferent nerves are the optic, the efferent, the facial. When a bad smell causes a grimace, there is a reflex action through the same motor nerve, while the olfactory nerves ...
— Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society • Walter Bagehot

... Swift, I see," he remarked carelessly, with a wink at his pupil. "You know his Tale of a Tub, Tom? Monstrous clever thing that! It tickles one to death reading it. So do his pamphlets—sharpest things out. Some talk of Defoe as his rival; but, for my part, I never ...
— Tom Tufton's Travels • Evelyn Everett-Green

... of the peculiar style of serenade contemplated. After his day's work was over, he rode here and there summoning congenial spirits. The project soon became pretty well known in several families, but the elder members remained discreetly blind and deaf, proposing to wink at what was going on, yet take no compromising part themselves. Lemuel Weeks winked very knowingly and suggestively. He kept within such bounds, however, as would enable him to swear that he knew nothing and had said nothing, but his son had never felt more assured of his father's sympathy. When ...
— He Fell in Love with His Wife • Edward P. Roe

... Cora a meaning glance. "Girls ought to think of the housework," she laughed with a wink at Belle. "Just look at ...
— The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay - The Secret of the Red Oar • Margaret Penrose

... grown many-fold stronger, sweeter, in the two weeks it had been denied the silly fondnesses of utterance. They could laugh, now that there was no critic of their shy brand of humor. Father stopped on the step and winked an immense shameless wink at Mother, and she sighed and said, with unexpected understanding, "Yes, I'm afraid Lulu is a ...
— The Innocents - A Story for Lovers • Sinclair Lewis

... work for the rest of the day and go swimming," said Farmer Green, with a wink at the hired man, "unless you're feeling ...
— The Tale of Buster Bumblebee • Arthur Scott Bailey

... I could afford to pay their prices I'd do it.... I'll wink at anything short of destruction; I can't let them cut the pine; I can't let them clean out the grouse and deer and fish. As for law-suits, I simply won't! There must be some decent way ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... oh, the light Of the high-fastidious night! Oh, to awake with the wise old stars — The cultured, the careful, the Chesterfield stars, That wink at the work-a-day fact of crime And shine so rich through the ruins of time That Baalbec is finer than London; oh, To sit on the bough that zigzags low By the woodland pool, And loudly laugh at man, the fool That vows to the vulgar sun; oh, rare, To wheel from the wood to the window where ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... strictness. Profligacy was, like the oak-leaf of the twenty-ninth of May, the badge of a cavalier and a High Churchman. Decency was associated with conventicles and calves' heads. Grave prelates were too much disposed to wink at the excesses of a body of zealous and able allies who covered Roundheads and Presbyterians with ridicule. If a Whig raised his voice against the impiety and licentiousness of the fashionable writers, his mouth was instantly stopped by the retort: ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... Honk!" added Farmer Best. "I'm what Parson called the skelliton of the machinery." He wound up with a wink at the ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... not perceive what incurable mischief he had done, for in return for the services of Saturninus[111] he was obliged to wink at his audacious and violent measures, and to remain quiet while Saturninus was evidently aiming at the supreme power and the subversion of the constitution by force of arms and blood-shed. Between his fear of the disapprobation of the nobles and his wish to retain the favour of the people, ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long

... sly wink at Tom, "you can't tell me that Connel has made our Venusian unhappy. Even if he had given us liberty, I'll bet Astro would have spent it down ...
— Danger in Deep Space • Carey Rockwell

... alone together, day after day, Mr. Wagg maintained his reticence. Once in a while he did wink at Vaniman. The winks grew more frequent when Mr. Wagg began to connect up the dynamite pockets in the hill with wires. One afternoon, near knocking-off time, he stepped into the shed where Vaniman was covering up his ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... thrusting forward her greasy forehead, enveloped us with a sphinx-like smirk. As I hastily pressed a two-franc piece above her eyebrows Safti addressed her animatedly in Arabic. I caught the word "Smain." The lady smiled, and made a guttural reply; then, with a somnolent wink at me, she waddled onward, flapping the blood-red hands and stamping ...
— Smain; and Safti's Summer Day - 1905 • Robert Hichens

... to the king, they found that he would give them no assurance of freedom of worship; it was intimated that, if they did go, the royal eye might be expected to wink at the proceeding; but, as for promises, royalty would not commit itself. Here was a discouragement. How should they dare break up their homes and cross the ocean to an unknown, uncolonized land, with no assurance of protection and liberty when they arrived ...
— Ten Great Events in History • James Johonnot

... what you came here for, is it?" exclaimed Mr. Halliday, with a wink at Mr. Brown. "Well, I'm sorry to say we are all out ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South • Laura Lee Hope

... of you!" laughed Mrs. Randal. They were already moving away down the corridor. Her voice receded as they went. "But I can't understand any man daring to wink at Lady ...
— The Knave of Diamonds • Ethel May Dell

... wink at him. Instead, she made way. He took her place, took the girl in his arms and thought he would like to keep her there—though not, of course, forever. But he said: "The ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus

... strutting about before me, pointing to the bull in the china shop assailed by hailstones and the bugbears with pale looks, an unanalyzed species! Let them mock on. The words describe so exactly the atmosphere of jostling, tumbling ideas I live in that I will wink at them for once, and put on a deliberate air to say that my ideas ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller

... here—take a walk!" advised Mulligan, as he shoved out some of the men and boys who had entered. "Get out! You can read all about it in the papers. The reporters'll be here soon enough," he added with a wink at Darcy. "I'll lock the door and keep the crowd out. The sleuths can knock when they get here. Where's your 'phone. I'll have ...
— The Diamond Cross Mystery - Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story • Chester K. Steele

... slight wink at the second, addressed the tutor. "Supposing you were to happen to forget yourself," said he to that ...
— Philosophy 4 - A Story of Harvard University • Owen Wister

... she felt suddenly sick. She dared not look at George Cannon, but once when she raised her head to await the flow of a period that had been arrested at a laudatory superlative, she caught Dayson winking coarsely at him. She hated Dayson for that; George Cannon might wink at Dayson (though she regretted the condescending familiarity), but Dayson had no right to presume to wink at George Cannon. She hoped that Mr. Cannon ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett

... daily and hourly guilty of enticing away from me the crown prince, and making the future ruler of my country an obscurer, a necromancer, and at the same time a libertine! I was obliged to overlook his youthful preference for Wilhelmine Enke, and wink at this amour, for I know that crown prince is human, and his affections are to be consulted. If he cannot love the wife which diplomacy chooses for him, then he must be permitted the chosen one of his heart to console him ...
— Old Fritz and the New Era • Louise Muhlbach

... however, were wont to be more than counteracted by the private inducements held out by many of the foreign adventurers and traders themselves, and after a while a great number of the officials found it very much to their profit not only to wink at the wholesale commerce and smuggling that was being carried on, but even actively to promote it and to participate ...
— South America • W. H. Koebel

... on less than four hundred acres of ground, too, I presume?" said the Bibliomaniac, with a wink at ...
— The Idiot • John Kendrick Bangs

... 'tis all over a'ready. I've a-heard afore now," he went on, turning his back to the wind the better to wink at the company, "that 'tis lucky for some folks Gauger Hocken hain't extra spry 'pon his pins. But 'tis a gift that cuts both ways. Be any gone round by Cove Head ...
— I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... noctograph^, teichopsia^. V. be blind &c adj.; not see; lose sight of; have the eyes bandaged; grope in the dark. not look; close the eyes, shut the eyes-, turn away the eyes, avert the eyes; look another way; wink &c (limited vision) 443; shut the eyes to, be blind to, wink at, blink at. render blind &c adj.; blind, blindfold; hoodwink, dazzle, put one's eyes out; throw dust into one's eyes, pull the wool over one's eyes; jeter de la poudre aux yeux [Fr.]; screen from sight &c (hide) 528. Adj. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... I remember The 'buses red and white, The corner where they used to stop And take me home at night; They never gave a wink at me And shouted, "Full to-day," But now I often wish that ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Feb. 19, 1919 • Various

... politics consequently became disreputable. Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with their own government, and to agree tacitly with those who regarded public office as a private perquisite. In this state of mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely alone. The decent and reputable citizens of the North who neglected their own civic duties grew hilarious over the exaggerated importance with which ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... but there is 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 ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... I will give you good warning. When I wink at you be ready to cast away your fetters at ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... of women, my dear Peter," said Morgan, with a wink at Conrad, which fortunately the seventh-century pirate did not see, else there would have been an open break—"the study of women is more difficult than that of astronomy; there may be two stars alike, but all women are unique. Because she was this, that, or ...
— The Pursuit of the House-Boat • John Kendrick Bangs

... hatted and coated to crane the neck of the passer-by, hurried arm-in-arm out into the spring evening. An errand girl, who had dropped her skirt and put up her hair so that the eye of the law might wink at her stigma of youth, hung the shimmering gowns away for another day's display. Gertie Dobriner patted her ringed fingers against her mouth to press back a yawn and trailed across the room, adjusting her hat before a full-length ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst

... mortifying it is to a writer thus in a manner to have his hands tied, and how many tempting opportunities I had to wink at, where I might have made as fine a death-blow as any ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... tell then of what we do, and not a little of what we see," answered Jerry, with a sort of a half wink at me, which was as much as to say, "We'll be up to all sorts of things." He added aloud, "My father is not the man to let the grass grow under the ship's bottom; but here come the glasses! What ...
— A Voyage round the World - A book for boys • W.H.G. Kingston

... its evolution, the “city fathers” build a theatre in connection with their casino, and (persuading the government to wink at their evasion of the gambling laws) add games of chance to the other temptations ...
— The Ways of Men • Eliot Gregory

... be maudlin, Red; can't you see it?" James Macauley gave his opinion with a wink at his friend. "With the necklace your wife is a dream. With a rose added she'd be a—waking up! Trust 'em, that's my advice. When they get to talking about a 'touch of' anything, that's the time to leave 'em alone. A touch of colour is not ...
— Mrs. Red Pepper • Grace S. Richmond



Words linked to "Wink at" :   encourage, boost, promote, further, advance



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