winkle

See also: Winkle

English

a winkle or common periwinkle, Littorina littorea

Wikispecies

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪŋkəl/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkəl

Etymology 1

Short for periwinkle.

Noun

winkle (plural winkles)

1. A periwinkle or its shell, of family Littorinidae.
   • 1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, a Description of the Body of Man, London: William Jaggard, Book 8, Chapter 25, p. 610,^[1]

     […] because the inward Eare is intorted like a winkle-shell, and hangeth as a bell in thee steeple of the body, it easily perceiueth all appulsions of the Ayre.

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, London: G. Newbold, Volume 1, p. 64,^[2]

     Shrimps and winkles are the staple commodities of the afternoon trade, which lasts from three to half-past five in the evening. These articles are generally bought by the working-classes for their tea.

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXV, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 181:

     Sometimes late at night men would come in with a pail of winkles they had bought cheap, and share them out.

   • 2001, Ian McEwan, Atonement, Toronto: Vintage Canada, Chapter 13,^[3]

     Briony was on her knees, trying to put her arms round Lola and gather her to her, but the body was bony and unyielding, wrapped tight about itself like a seashell. A winkle.

2. Any one of various marine spiral gastropods, especially, in the United States, either of two species Busycotypus canaliculata and Busycon carica.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:winkle.
3. (children's slang) The penis, especially that of a boy rather than that of a man.
   • 2004, Robert Priest, How to Swallow a Pig:

     After all, he didn't want his winkle to get so big it became unruly and unnatural.

Derived terms

• winkle (verb)
• winkle-picker

Synonyms

• (Littorinidae): oyster drill
• (Busycon and Busycotypus spp.): Fulgar carica, Busycon canaliculata
• (childish: the penis): See also Thesaurus:penis

Translations

gastropod — see periwinkle

children's slang: the penis

• French: zizi (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: pisello (it) m

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

winkle (third-person singular simple present winkles, present participle winkling, simple past and past participle winkled)

1. Synonym of winkle out (“to acquire or extract with difficulty”)

Derived terms

• winkle out

Anagrams

• Wilken, welkin