as in ignoring
to dismiss as of little importance
for too long the school just winked at the young athletes' hooliganism, dismissing it as a case of "boys being boys"
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for winking (at)
Verb
-
Prosecutors accused the trust, which convinced a federal district judge to order a temporary pause in construction, of ignoring claims that the project is needed to bolster national security.—
Dave Goldiner,
New York Daily News,
28 Apr. 2026 -
But three days after withdrawing the lawsuit, Florida sued CMS for a third time, accusing the federal agency of ignoring the state’s public records request related to CMS’ approval of the KidCare expansion.—
Daniel Chang,
Miami Herald,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The first step toward forgiving people who have hurt us is wanting to.—
Jeanne Phillips,
Mercury News,
23 Apr. 2026
-
The projects are forgiving, the mess is encouraged and the payoff is something the whole family can admire in the yard for months to come.—
Lauren Jarvis-Gibson,
Sacbee.com,
21 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
What to read next The Japanese eatery, Yutori, is an open-air circular restaurant overlooking the sea.—
Ann Lee,
TheWeek,
30 Apr. 2026
-
All Angelenos saw were enormous letters appearing on a ridge overlooking the freeway, and the city lost its mind.—
Matti Yahav,
Fortune,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The homeowner, Thania Magana, said flight data showed a plane passing over her neighborhood at the time, according to Hahn.—
Daniel S. Levine,
PEOPLE,
16 Apr. 2026
-
At the time of liftoff, the ISS — currently home to the seven-member Expedition 74 crew — was passing over the northern Pacific Ocean, too far away for the astronauts to see the launch directly.—
Sharmila Kuthunur,
Space.com,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The species evolved to adapt, with some growing larger and others smaller than their mainland counterparts, explaining the larger size of the island scrub-jay and the small size of the island fox.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
29 Apr. 2026
-
In 2012, Classic Media was bought by DreamWorks Animation, which in turn was acquired by Universal Pictures parent NBCUniversal in 2016, explaining why the potential Disney+ series is a co-production between DreamWorks Animation TV and UCP.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
This suggests that Amodei believed Anthropic had more leverage on the Pentagon than the Pentagon had on it — the CEO of a company founded just five years ago shrugging off a threat from the world’s most powerful and best-funded entity.—
U T Editorial Board,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
25 Apr. 2026
-
The Europeans are shrugging off these comments, if not ignoring them entirely.—
Daniel DePetris,
Chicago Tribune,
7 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The improvement between Gemini 2 and Gemini 3 may be papering over a more serious flaw.—
Frank Landymore,
Futurism,
8 Apr. 2026
-
Yet the money manager remains hopeful that fiscal stimulus — more government spending coupled with consumer and business tax breaks — from last year's One Big Beautiful Bill will start to take effect in a few months, papering over any nascent economic weakness.—
Sarah Min,
CNBC,
20 Feb. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Winking (at).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winking%20%28at%29. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
