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Synonyms

wink at

British  

verb

  1. (intr, preposition) to connive at; disregard

    the authorities winked at corruption

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

wink at Idioms  
  1. Deliberately overlook, pretend not to see, as in Sometimes it's wise to wink at a friend's shortcomings. This idiom, first recorded in 1537, uses wink in the sense of “close one's eyes.”


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Downing was “adept at switching between the material and the spiritual,” a realist willing to wink at disagreements and who favored “subtlety, sophistication and restraint.”

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 11, 2026

The line is supposed to be a little funny, a wink at the fashion industry’s love of effusive word salad descriptions that are only conveyed in the actual garments about half the time.

From Salon Sep. 17, 2025

His rendition of Fly Me To the Moon impressed the judges, as did his boyish charm - he showed a cheeky streak when he flashed a mid-song wink at Girls Aloud star Cheryl.

From BBC Oct. 16, 2024

The tooth is a wink at “One Morning in Maine,” an earlier Robert McCloskey book involving a wiggly bicuspid — or was it a molar?

From New York Times Apr. 1, 2024

“No thank you, Brother. I couldn’t sleep a wink at a time like this. You know how it is.”

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

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