gimlet
pronunciation
How to pronounce gimlet in British English:
UK [ˈgɪmlət]
How to pronounce gimlet in American English:
US [ˈɡɪmlɪt]
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- Noun:
- a cocktail made of gin or vodka and lime juice
- hand tool for boring holes
Word Origin
- gimlet (n.)
- type of boring tool, mid-14c., gymbelette, from Anglo-French and Old French guimbelet, guibelet (12c., Modern French gibelet), which is probably of Germanic origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch wimmelkijn (with substitute of French diminutive suffix), diminutive of wimmel "auger, drill." Middle English also had wimble in the same sense (mid-13c.), probably from an Old North French form of the same word. As the name of a cocktail made with gin or vodka and lime juice, by 1928, presumably from its "penetrating" effects on the drinker.
Example
- 1. I ordered you a gimlet .
- 2. His gimlet eyes blinked at her .
- 3. His glance was like a gimlet , cold and piercing .
- 4. Any fool with an empty wallet , a gimlet eye , and an emptier head can sell his soul ; just as any dilettante can trade meaning for money , and glorify themselves as a starving artist .
- 5. Not surprisingly , then , the whole notion of " financial innovation " is being looked at with a gimlet eye , and congress is now considering various ways to rein in the banking industry 's excesses .