Getting Winked

April 29, 2010 7:14 AM

How do you interrupt it when someone winks at you?
posted by quiverandquill to Grab Bag (24 answers total)

Well, if you want to interrupt it, poke them in the eye. If you mean how to interpret it, that's hard to say without context. It could be flirtatious, or it could mean any number of other things.
posted by dortmunder at 7:16 AM on April 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

I think they'd have to be winking very slowly for you to interrupt it.

If you mean to ask how to interpret it, that's heavily dependent on context. Is there a particular situation you're asking about?
posted by ludwig_van at 7:17 AM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you stop looking they will stop winking?
posted by rom1 at 7:17 AM on April 29, 2010

Depends on the context. Was it after the delivery of a tongue-in-cheek type of joke? Or was it an oh-hellOOOO-there wink-wink situation?
posted by Eicats at 7:17 AM on April 29, 2010

I interpret it to mean that the winker is a total cheeseball. The specifics of the situation need to be taken into account to further determine if the winker is an awesome, funny-uncle type cheeseball, or a skeezy, on-the-make type cheeseball.

And then there is ironic winking, in which the winker is aware of the ridiculousness of the winking act, and is doing so specifically to reference the cheeseball nature of winking in general.
posted by joelhunt at 7:21 AM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Seconding joelhunt. It is possible to wink innocently. Just not advisable.

Perhaps a well-timed suspicious squint would interrupt a wink? I admit I have no empirical data to support my squint-wink hypothesis.
posted by AugieAugustus at 7:25 AM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mod note: few comments removed - please do not turn this into an ASCII winkfest
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:30 AM on April 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

What do you mean by interrupting winking? The question doesn't make sense.

Are you asking how to prevent one from winkig at you? You can't.

Are you askig how to ignore someone who winks at you? Then just ignore it.

Not sure what this question means.
posted by dfriedman at 7:31 AM on April 29, 2010

Ask Clifford Geertz.
posted by felix betachat at 7:34 AM on April 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

I think 'interrupt it' is a typo for 'interpret it'.
posted by selton at 7:34 AM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Some clarification would be really, really helpful here. My interpretation of the question is something like "how do you respond when someone winks at you and you want them to stop," in which case looking them in the eye and giving a quick taken-aback look would suffice. But given the tags of "fun" and "relationship" I'm not sure that's your question. If you did mean "interpret" instead of "interrupt," I'd recommend not reading much into it and going on other cues - a lot of people who wink don't do it in a particularly meaningful way.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:40 AM on April 29, 2010

I have found that ignoring behavior such as this works great. You didn't SEE them wink. hint. hint.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:51 AM on April 29, 2010

it could mean the winker is trying to convey interest in you sexually, sort of a facial tick replacement for "how you doin'?" usually in this case accompanied by a non subtle once over of you.

it could also mean "hey, you are in on the joke". In this case, a 3rd party is involved and the winker is letting you know that the winker is bsing the 3rd party.


i think the delivery plus your relationship to the winker is the key to interpretation. if you are asking how to make them quit, ignore it.
posted by domino at 8:02 AM on April 29, 2010

I think that "wink" here may be a dating website thing... I also think that "interrupt it" is a typo for "interpret it."
posted by clockwork at 8:03 AM on April 29, 2010

When I was still an infant, my mom would wink at me and I would wink back. This stuck with me, and I still sometimes catch myself winking at her without realizing it/meaning to. In short, there's no easy way to interpret winking.
posted by Phyltre at 8:03 AM on April 29, 2010

I don't see how "interpret" can be mistyped as "interrupt", especially as there's a preview option before posting. Maybe the OP needs to come back online and address some of the questions upthread before anybody takes this forward on the basis of assumptions about what he might have been asking.
posted by aqsakal at 8:37 AM on April 29, 2010

Context is pretty critical, I think, with wink interpretation (or interruption, for that matter).
posted by box at 8:50 AM on April 29, 2010

I had a friend in high school who winked every now and then, at pretty much everyone. People liked him a lot because they thought he was flirting with them. (It helped that he was good-looking.) In reality, though, he just had Tourette's.

I don't see how "interpret" can be mistyped as "interrupt"

Misspelling + Spell Checker. Duh.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:07 AM on April 29, 2010

I used to be a winker. A variety of meanings behind it. I can't recall ever winking at a stranger though. And now I avoid winking like the plague in a post Palin-Wink world. It just skeeves me right the F out.

So, I would interpret it as some cheesy Alaska former beauty queen wanna be politician influenced nut bag trying to get my attention. But your mileage may well very.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:15 AM on April 29, 2010

If it's me doing the winking, you could buy me a beer because my eye twitches every time I go through a period of stress. Maybe it's not a wink? Or you could vote democrat as another suggested, unless it's Bill Clinton running for something again.
posted by mattholomew at 9:46 AM on April 29, 2010

Someone you know well? Winking means, "We're in on this, we know the score." Usually used when an additional person is NOT in on a secret or a prank and the winker wants you to play along. Also used when winker has to explain something to third person (a child, or a client, for example) that to the both of you is is self-evident.

Someone you only know slightly? Usually signals attraction. Can be a bit creepy of off-putting. Men seems to react more favorably; attractive woman winking is seen as flirting and can be flattering. I've rarely seen strange men wink at women and had it end well, though.
posted by misha at 11:06 AM on April 29, 2010

Ask them if there is something wrong with their eyelid.
posted by yoyoceramic at 11:30 AM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

If it's my adorable 80 year old grandfather, it means he just made an adorable 80 year old man joke. If it's a friendly lady at a store, it means they're being friendly. If it's a creepy random guy, it means they're being creepy and random.

There's a theme here.
posted by MadamM at 12:46 PM on April 29, 2010

For some reason my previous answer was deleted - so I'll again say that asking them if they have something in their eye (or as yoyoceramic said - with their eyelid), that ought to stop it. But that's only for continuous winking, you can't really interrupt a single wink except to just not acknowledge it.
posted by meerkatty at 3:02 PM on April 29, 2010