Haven't slept a wink
Neil: | (Yawning) Welcome to The English We Speak with mea very tired Neiland Feifei. |
Feifei: | (Yawning) Hi, I'm Feifei. |
Neil: | Oh, Feifei, I'm so tired. |
Feifei: | Me too. The kids? |
Neil: | Ah, the kids kept me awake all night. As soon as one of them went back to sleep, the other one started screaming. What's your excuse? |
Feifei: | A mosquito. |
Neil: | A mosquito? |
Feifei: | Yes, there was a mosquito in my room. Every time I turned the light off and tried to go to sleep I heard buzzing in my ear. I haven't slept a wink. |
Neil: | And I haven't slept a wink either! A wink is when you close and open one of your eyes very quickly onceusually to show friendliness or that you are having a joke with someone. It's also a verbto wink. |
Feifei: | So, if you say 'I haven't slept a wink' it means that you've had so little sleep, your eye didn't even close once! |
Neil: | That's right. It's an exaggeration. Here are some examples: |
Neil: | So, we can use 'I haven't slept a wink' to say that we are very tired because we haven't had much sleep. (Yawns) I can't wait to get home tonight and just jump into bed ... I don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of this programme, let alone the rest of the day. |
Feifei: | Me neither. |
Neil: | Nice and quiet in here, though, isn't it? |
Feifei: | And dark. |
Neil: | Do you think anyone would notice if we just ... |
Feifei: | That's a great idea! I'll just put these two chairs together. |
Neil: | And I'll rest my head on this desk and ... (snoring). (Sound of babies screaming and mosquitos buzzing) |
Both: | Argh! Kids! Mosquitos! Is there anywhere to sleep? Argh! |