nudge

a nudge and a wink encouragement given secretly or implicitly; covert support.

☞ Both a nudge and a wink are covert signs of complicity, with wink also having the implication of 'shutting your eyes' to something. The same idea is expressed by a nod and a wink (see a nod's as good as a wink at nod).

2011CFO: Magazine for Senior Financial Executives Give banks unlimited access to three-year funding from the European Central Bank and it wouldn't take much more than a nudge and a wink for them to buy the bonds of Europe's troubled peripheral countries instead of having the ECB do the job itself.

nudge nudge (wink wink) used to draw attention to an innuendo, especially a sexual one, in the previous statement. informal

☞ This expression is a catchphrase from Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy programme.