Word: winker Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Pronunciation: /ˈwɪŋkə/, /ˈwɪŋkəɹ/ 1. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”). 2. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”). Example: He [Joshua] vvas the pattern of a true Judge, he vvas no gift-taker, he vvas no vvinker, he vvas no by-vvalker. Example: And so may we iudge of these wilye winkers in Religion, that either they be blindstockes in deede and lacke the light of that Heauenlye wysedome, which they pretende to haue, or els their wicked wysedome is but a cloake of wickednes […] 3. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Labels: informal 4. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Labels: also, attributive, figuratively, in-plural Example: [T]his Censurer slaundereth manie men, another might say of him, he is the cōmon packhorse of the Papistes, to carrie any fardell of lyes deuised against any Christian man or booke that commeth in his way, and the rather because he weareth a paire of winkers ouer his eyes like a milhorse, being ashamed to shewe either his face or his name. Example: Take the winkers off that donkey's face, and let him get a bit to eat; there's grass enough, God knows, and it's good grass. 5. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Example: Where the wind-trunk is short between the reservoir and wind-chests the tone will be steady; but when it is long, and with bends, the elasticity of the air causes an unsteadiness in the tone, which must be obviated by the use of concussion-bellows, sometimes called "winkers," or by an elastic diaphragm. 6. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Example: There is a third inner eyelid, highly developed and of beautiful mechanism: this is the nictitating membrane, or "winker" (nictito, I wink), a delicate, elastic, translucent, pearly-white fold of the conjunctiva. While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker sweeps horizontally or obliquely across the ball, from the side next the beak to the opposite. 7. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Labels: UK, dialectal, slang Example: [H]e has shell'd out the lour for the occasion, and is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal. [Footnote ǁ: “Wakeful winker—A sharp eye.”] Example: With keener stare / The man's eyes scanned him, with the flare / Of yellow light full on his face, / As though his memory sought to trace / Something familiar in the lean / Clearcut young features and the clean / Blue winkers: then his own hard eyes / Twinkled, […] 8. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Labels: UK, US, dialectal, slang Example: We're like father and Aunt Nina, hanging on the wall in the library. Mother's got big black eyes, with winkers a rod long, and her hair shines like my velvet coat, and comes most to her feet. Example: I had fallen down on my knees, with my back to the wind, and already the snow had drifted around me. I also found my eye-lashes frozen together, and I lost several winkers in getting rid of those solidified tears.