Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic,humorous,alsoattributive)A phrase used tohintthat thespeakeriseuphemisticallyreferringto something else.1985June 7,Michael John Cullen, “Electricity (South Island Concession) Amendment Bill”, inParliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Forty-first Parliament, 1985:House of Representatives, volume 462 (Comprising the Period from 22 March to 7 June 1985), Wellington, N.Z.: V. R. Ward, Government Printer,→OCLC,page4609:The Opposition is so insensitive to the South Island that it gets a North Island member to move a private member's Bill about a South Island issue.[…]The Bill represents a broken half-promise—"nudge, nudge, wink, wink"—by the Leader of the Opposition in Timaru only a short time ago.[…]So down [to the South Island] he goes—"nudge, nudge, wink, wink". They let him out of the closet for a while to go down to talk to some South Islanders and he told them they would get 25 percent and 10 percent. Now there is a Bill from a North Island Opposition member, the member for New Plymouth—a Bill that backs off from that promise in the space of a couple of weeks.2007,Rikke Schubart, “High Trash: Lara, Beatrix, and Three Angels”, inSuper Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006, Jefferson, N.C.:McFarland & Company,→ISBN,page300:Toby Miller, a professor at New York University, commented on [actressDrew] Barrymore's attitude: "She seems to be saying, 'I see no reason to hide my sexuality, my body—I want to celebrate it' … And all the women I know, even those who thought such a spectacle was tragic in the Seventies, love it. It's anudge-nudge, wink-winkparody."2014,Lynda Bellingham, chapter2, inThe Boy I Love, London:Simon & Schuster,→ISBN:Sally unlocked her tiny cubicle and found herself feeling quite nostalgic. No more early mornings on the number 13 bus to work. No more Geordie and hisnudge nudge, wink winkgreetings; from next month she would be a professional actress, working in repertory.
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