wink at

phrasal verb

winked at; winking at; winks at

: to pretend not to have seen or noticed (something) : to ignore

The city cops wink at the mayor's parking violations.

Examples of wink at in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Routh appeared to wink at his kids as he was being led away. —Corky Siemaszko, NBC news, 24 Sep. 2025

During a toast, cameras captured him winking at the Princess of Wales, which went viral on social media. —Stephanie Nolasco , Ashley Papa, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2025

This is a movie about storytelling that both undermines and embraces the whole idea of storytelling, winking at the hokiness of fairy tales while still believing in them — a satire of the Happily Ever After story and also a prime example of the genre. —Will Leitch, Vulture, 13 Sep. 2025

Passepartout is also a wink at a long-running Italian television series in the early 2000s hosted by art historian Philippe Daverio, which made discovering and decrypting art very entertaining. —Miles Socha, Footwear News, 4 Sep. 2025

Rhymes for wink at

• begat
• bobcat
• chitchat
• doormat
• ducat
• eclat
• format
• hazmat
• muskrat
• nonfat
• polecat
• thereat