wink-wink

English

Verb

wink-wink (third-person singular simple present wink-winks, present participle wink-winking, simple past and past participle wink-winked)

1. (colloquial) To turn a blind eye (to something); to make an indirect reference to something unspoken, especially something indecent.
   • 2010, Michael Konik, Reefer Gladness, page 49:

     But instead of wink-winking at the law, I think the brave and righteous thing to do is to celebrate marijuana's true and most profound medicinal quality: It makes people feel good.

   • 2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties, Twelve Books:

     Though JFK was praised as a family man—married to the most glamorous first lady of the twentieth century—the press corps and the public wink-winked throughout his presidency.