corker

plural corkers · alternative cauker · alternative caulker

1. One who puts corks into bottles.

   Yes it is, Frank. Don't you see? Laertes is to take the best of care of his friends—his proved friends, on the same principle that a wine-corker takes the best of care of his proved bottles.

   1857, Herman Melville, chapter 30, in The Confidence-Man

2. informalA person or thing that is exceptional or remarkable.

   He had just had an absolute corker of an idea!

   2012, Mark Griffiths, Space Lizards Ate My Sister!

   2 more examples

   Well, a body is bound to admit that for just a modest little one-line ad., it's a corker.

   1889, Mark Twain, chapter XVI, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, page 124

   "As a matter of fact," explained the young man, "the present tenant is under our notice to leave." "Unsatisfactory, eh?" said Carrados encouragingly. "He's a corker," admitted the clerk, responding to the friendly tone. "Fifteen months and not a doit of rent have we had. That's why I should have liked——"

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   Synonyms: whopper

plural Corkers

1. A surname originating as an occupation.