Wince vs Wink - What's the difference?
wince | wink |
A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.
A reel used in dyeing, steeping, or washing cloth; a winch. It is placed over the division wall between two wince pits so as to allow the cloth to descend into either compartment at will.
To flinch as if in pain or distress.
* (William Shakespeare)
* , chapter=17
, title= * {{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=The Norwich Victims, chapter=7/2 To wash (cloth), dip it in dye, etc., with the use of a wince.
To kick or flounce when unsteady or impatient.
(obsolete) To close one's eyes.
* Shakespeare
* Tillotson
(archaic) To turn a blind eye.
*, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.51:
* Herbert
* John Locke
(intransitive) To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion.
To twinkle.
To be dim and flicker.
To send an indication of agreement by winking.
An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
A brief time; an instant.
A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
* 1919 ,
A disc used in the game of tiddlywinks.
In intransitive terms the difference between wince and wink
is that wince is to flinch as if in pain or distress while wink is to be dim and flicker.In transitive terms the difference between wince and wink
is that wince is to wash (cloth), dip it in dye, etc., with the use of a wince while wink is to send an indication of agreement by winking.wince
English
Noun
(en noun)Verb
(winc)- I will not stir, nor wince , nor speak a word.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.}}
citation, passage=The two Gordon setters came obediently to heel. Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago.}}
wink
English
Verb
(en verb)- I will wink , so shall the day seem night.
- They are not blind, but they wink .
- Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.
- And yet, as though he knew it not, / His knowledge winks , and lets his humours reign.
- Obstinacy can not be winked at, but must be subdued.
- He winked at me.
- She winked her eye.
- The light winks .
Noun
(en noun)- I couldn't bear to leave him where he is. I shouldn't sleep a wink for thinking of him.