Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small hand tool having a spiraled shank, a screw tip, and a cross handle and used for boring holes.
- n. A cocktail made with vodka or gin, sweetened lime juice, and sometimes effervescent water and garnished with a slice of lime.
- v. To penetrate with or as if with a gimlet.
- adj. Having a penetrating or piercing quality: gimlet eyes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small instrument with a pointed screw at the end, for boring holes in wood by turning it with one hand.
- To use or apply a gimlet upon; form a hole in by using a gimlet; turn round, as one does a gimlet.
Wiktionary
- n. A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.
- n. A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.
- v. To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small tool for boring holes. It has a leading screw, a grooved body, and a cross handle.
- v. To pierce or make with a gimlet.
- v. To turn round (an anchor) by the stock, with a motion like turning a gimlet.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cocktail made of gin or vodka and lime juice
- n. hand tool for boring holes
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Anglo-Norman guimbelet, perhaps from Middle Dutch wimmelkijn, diminutive of wimmel, auger.
Examples
“Sator: I'm more a martini guy myself, but that gimlet is in the top five.”
“A gimlet is a strong drink with a distinctive sweet sharp tang to it that is refreshing and elegant.”
“Brendan probably means gauntlet, since a gimlet is a small boring tool for penetrating wood.”
“Shall I persuade him, Dumbledore?' called a gimlet-eyed witch, raising an unusually thick wand that looked not unlike a birch rod.”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
“He stood for some time staring after them with what Billy Louise called his gimlet look.”
“(Oxford English Dictionary) [21.9] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a gimlet is a type of tool used to bore holes.”
“Gigantic Gigantic recalls the gimlet-eyed, halcyon days of '90s indie filmmaking, when "quirky" was just another word for every reason to commit your painfully awkward coming-of-age tale to celluloid.”
“Bluntly put, the drink described in the video is not a Margarita but a tequila gimlet which is truly a marvelous drink as well as safe haven for tequila aficionados not wanting to see their favorite high quality - and high priced- spirit blasphemed by “sour mix” or similar juicy insults in the name of “Margarita” mixing.”
Is There Only One Way to Make a Cocktail? - Bitten Blog - NYTimes.com
“She would fix her viper-coloured eyes on his, and say with a kind of gimlet firmness, 'I hardly think that is the true interpretation, Brother G.', or, 'But let us turn to Colossians, and see what the Holy Ghost says there upon this matter.”
“And her father went over every bill with a gimlet eye.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gimlet’.
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Letterrorists
A bunch of -let words, emphasis on the diminutive. Feel free to neologize.
booklet, flatlet, haslet, nutlet, platelet, streamlet, varlet, aglet, gablet, leaflet, piglet, ringlet and 504 more...
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The Worm List
List of all things wormy.
hookworm, earworm, roundworm, corn earworm, bollworm, pinworm, whipworm, earthworm, heartworm, polychete, teredo, lugworm and 53 more...
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josholalia's list
ineluctable, glossolalia, agog, echolalia, minaret, pillory, usury, gimlet, carioca, sniveling, concave, convex and 15 more...
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Cocktails: Drink Up. The Night is Young!
Have some liquor to help the orange juice go down.
zombie, yellow bird, white russian, whiskey sour, vodka tonic, tom collins, tom and jerry, toasted almond, tequila sunrise, stinger, spritzer, sloe gin fizz and 62 more...

fbharjo see refrigeratory the 'essense' of worming?? Apr 4, 2012