gimlet

plural gimlets

1. A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.

   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.

   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)

   1 more example

   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 [...]

   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

2. A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.

   By seven, dinner was under way, and a bottle of vodka gimlets and one of martinis were in the freezer, chilling.

   2012, Stuart Woods, Unnatural Acts: A Stone Barrington Novel, Penguin, →ISBN, page 98

   2 more examples

   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.”

   1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, published 2002, page 19

   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.

   2001, General Hospital (TV soap opera, August 28)

present singular third person gimlets · participle present gimleting · participle present gimletting · participle past gimleted · past gimleted · participle past gimletted · past gimletted

1. To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).

   Then there was an awful silence. The lady gimleted us again one by one with her blue eyes.

   1904, E[dith] Nesbit, “(please specify the page)”, in New Treasure Seekers, London: Ernest Benn, →OCLC

2. transitivenauticalTo turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.