What it means
Forty winks is a short, light nap, the quick doze you grab in an armchair after lunch or on the train home. The forty is not literal, just a homely old way of saying a small number of winks of the eye, enough to take the edge off your tiredness without being a proper sleep. A cosy, slightly old-fashioned phrase for a restorative little snooze.
Usage examples
"Let me catch forty winks and I will be good to drive again."
"Granddad has his forty winks in the armchair every Sunday before the football even kicks off."
"I'll just grab forty winks on the train, give us a nudge when we're near the station."
"Grandad always has forty winks in his chair after Sunday dinner."
Where it comes from
A wink here is the quick shut of the eyes, and forty is just an old vague way of saying a fair few, the same loose forty you meet all over old sayings. Put them together and you get a handful of eye-shuts, a nap small enough to deny you ever had it.
Other ways to say it
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