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. (Naut.) 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
- The name "gimlet" comes from the Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, later guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-French "wimble", a variation of "guimble", from the Middle Low German wiemel, compare the Scandinavian wammie, to bore or twist; the modern French is gibelet. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Anglo-Norman guimbelet, perhaps from Middle Dutch wimmelkijn, diminutive of wimmel, auger. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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.”
“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 54 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...
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Mr. Prolagus is surprised
Words - or different usages of words I already knew - that I am learning thanks to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
See also ofravens' with thanks to Anne Shirley.alder, decorum, ferret, dint, wont, gauntlet, turnip, sorrel, deft, embower, scant, peck and 92 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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New words
Words that are new to me.
autostrada, gimlet, clyster, gravida, skelped, nacreous, susurrus, intransigent, puissant, turbid, plangent, fungible and 99 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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TheLastGoodNameLeft
The Last Good Words Left
ephemera, gammon, errata, ellipses, octopi, heteronormative, polyp, intersectionality, theses, california, halfback, fullback and 555 more...
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Ptolemy's Gate
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, Ptolemy's Gate.
fall afoul, fleet, tamarisk, krait, inkstone, hotted up, down-market, have a truck with, brio, fatalistic, knock-kneed, conserve and 210 more...
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phuzzy's Words
entomophagan, corpuscle, mellifluence, haberdasher, milliner, tow, spartan, bdellotomy, trepan, trephine, congenial, courtly and 208 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gimlet.
fbharjo see refrigeratory the 'essense' of worming?? Apr 4, 2012