Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. usu. of a horse, blinkers.

1795		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Pindariana’ Works (1796) IV 225: You’ll give him, coach-horse like, a pair of ‘winkers.’.
1801		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Orson and Ellen’ Works (1801) V 352: A married man should winkers wear, Like coach-horses and cart.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 195: Winkers [...] the appendages of leather, placed near the eyes of horses given to shying.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 434: ‘Come on, sir,’ said the doctor, catching the donkey’s winkers.
1882		Tuapeka Times (Otago) 16 Sept. 4: He can’t ride a moke either with bridle or winkers.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 51: Not accustomed to winkers, the veteran catches his toe in a root.
1900		G. Fitzmaurice ‘The Plight of Lena’s Wooers’ in Weekly Freeman 15 Dec. (1970) 47: He had brought in the horse’s winkers to put to keep.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 160: Deb had stuck sprigs of pink peach-blossom against his winkers for the races.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Rivals’ in Me And Gus (1977) 70: A big, hairy, old draught horse with rheumy eyes and a huge head – no wonder the winkers wouldn’t go on.
1943		(con. 1850–60s) G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 7: It was oxen we used. Gentle beasts they were [...] They wore leather winkers.
1952		B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 63: With maybe a sprig of red-gold beech leaves in the brass-studded winkers to confound the late flies.
1985		T. Murphy Thief of a Christmas in Plays: 2 (1993) Act I: Leadin’ a black horse by the winkers.
1996		D. Healy Bend for Home 285: There was a photograph of my father standing [...] by a horse in great wonderful winkers.

2. (Aus.) spectacles.

1816		‘Quiz’ Grand Master 11: A patent pair of goggle winkers, Conceal’d from public view his blinkers [OED].
1895		Truth (Sydney) 19 May 5/4: I got fourteen days — an innocent man — for stealing a pair of winkers.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Aug. 14/2: Two nights after met the lady at a bazaar in town, but failed to recognise her, as she wore gold-rimmed glasses. Most of our mothers, when girls, didn’t wear winkers, but there was nothing giddy about them.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 88: The old bloke wi’ the white weskit an’ gold winkers cops the lot.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 316: I had to laugh at the way he came out with that about the old one with the winkers on her blind drunk in her royal palace every night of God, old Vic.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 241: ‘Half a mo. Wait till I put me winkers on.’ Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pair of metal rimmed glasses.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xliii 11/3: winkers: Eye-glasses.

3. (also winklers) the eyes or eyelashes; occas. in sing.

1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 608: [He] is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal.
1842		N.Y. Herald 27 Apr. 2/4: Job indignantly shoved the fellow off, when tap he caught it on the left winker.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 209: Bout Lonnun, divent ye make sic a rout / There’s nowse there maw winkers to dazzle.
1843		L.H. Medina Nick of the Woods I ii: Captain, we must keep our eye-winkers gaping, or some of your colts will be missing before sunrise.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 71: My chum lit the two Roman candles and I touched off the rocket, and that’s where my eye winkers went.
1905		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy Abroad 471: I lost my hair and eye winkers.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 65: With her Hair shaken out and Lamp Black on her Eye-Winkers, so as to look like Maxine.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 215: winkers eyelashes.
1999		D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 Then one night their winklers met across the room. He told her, ‘You have really beautiful shutters.’.

4. vehicle indicators.

1951		Autocar 2 Nov. 1411/1: Another advantage of the ‘winkers’ is the fact that no mechanical fault can develop .
1960		News Chronicle 21 July 6/4: On the M1 [...] there are no curves to cancel the winkers [OED].
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 275: I put on the winkers, swung out, and swept forward.