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gimlet

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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a gimlet (tool)

Etymology

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From Middle English gimlet etc., from Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-Norman wimble, a variation of guimble (“drill”), from the Middle Low German wiemel; continued in Modern French as gibelet.[1]

Cocktail either named after the tool, in reference to its penetrating effects, or British Navy surgeon Thomas Gimlette (1857–1943).[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gimlet (plural gimlets)

  1. A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.
    Coordinate terms: auger, awl, drill
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):
      The box was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air.
    • 1917 November, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “The Collar-bone of a Hare”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, Other Verses and a Play in Verse, Churchtown, Dundrum [Dublin]: The Cuala Press, →OCLC, page 3:
      I would find by the edge of that water / The collar-bone of a hare / Worn thin by the lapping of water, / And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare [...]
  2. A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.
    Coordinate term: martini
    • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, published 2002, page 19:
      We sat in a corner of the bar at Victor's and drank gimlets. “They don't know how to make them here,” he said. “What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.”
    • 2001, General Hospital (TV soap opera, August 28):
      Yeah, a piece of advice — once you’re back in circulation, don’t keep topping off a lady’s vodka gimlet when she’s not looking.
    • 2012, Stuart Woods, Unnatural Acts: A Stone Barrington Novel, Penguin, →ISBN, page 98:
      By seven, dinner was under way, and a bottle of vodka gimlets and one of martinis were in the freezer, chilling.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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gimlet (third-person singular simple present gimlets, present participle gimleting or gimletting, simple past and past participle gimleted or gimletted)

  1. To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).
    • 1904, E[dith] Nesbit, “(please specify the page)”, in New Treasure Seekers, London: Ernest Benn, →OCLC:
      Then there was an awful silence. The lady gimleted us again one by one with her blue eyes.
  2. (nautical, transitive) To turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “gimlet”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “gimlet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

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Swedish

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Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Noun

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gimlet c

  1. gimlet (cocktail)
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