Forty winksとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From forty +‎ winks, possibly referring to a nap supposedly lasting as long as it takes a person to wink (i.e., blink) forty times.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌfɔːti ˈwɪŋks/
• (General American) IPA: /ˌfɔɹti ˈwɪŋks/, [-ɾi-]
• 韻: -ɪŋks
• ハイフネーション: for‧ty winks

名詞

forty winks pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic, informal) A short sleep, especially when taken during the day; a nap.

   Near-synonyms: shut-eye, twenty winks; see also Thesaurus:shut-eye

   As you’re so tired, why not try to catch forty winks before you leave?

   • 1821, [William Kitchiner], “Sleep”, in The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life, by Food, Clothes, Air, Exercise, Wine, Sleep, &c. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Hurst, Robinson, and Co.; Edinburgh: A[rchibald] Constable and Co., →OCLC, page 69:

     Is it not better Economy of Time, to go to sleep for half an hour,—than to go on noodling all day in a nerveless and semi-superannuated state— […] for any purpose requiring the Energy of either the Body, or the Mind. "A Forty Winks Nap," in a horizontal posture, is the best preparative for any extraordinary exertion of either.

   • 1834 January, Dashwood [pseudonym], “New Year’s Eve”, in The Sporting Magazine, volume VIII (2nd Series), number XLV, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 255:

     John hitches himself in his oaken settle, and yawns awake from the "forty winks" in which he has indulged after his day's work: […]

   • 1897, Hall Caine, chapter XIII, in The Christian: A Story, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, 1st book (The Outer World), page 63:

     [T]hey cuddled in comfortably for forty winks before the anthem [during a church service].

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 574:

     Mr Bloom in the meanwhile kept dodging about in the vicinity of the cobblestones near the brazier of coke in front of the corporation watchman's sentrybox, who, evidently a glutton for work, it struck him, was having a quiet forty winks for all intents and purposes on his own private account while Dublin slept.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (science fiction), Redwood City, Calif.: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, P.C., scene: Eden Prime:

     I … sometimes I need a nap to get through my shift. I sneak off behind the crates to grab forty winks where the supervisor can't find me.

参照

Further reading

• “forty winks” under “forty, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “forty winks, phrase” under “forty, cardinal number”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “forty winks” under “wink, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025.