gimlet

Meanings

Noun

• A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.
• A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.

Verb

• To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).
• To turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.

Origin

• From the Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, later guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-French wimble, a variation of guimble (“drill”), from the Middle Low German wiemel, compare the Scandinavian wammie, to bore or twist; the modern French is gibelet.
• Cocktail either named after the tool, in reference to its penetrating effects, or British Navy surgeon Gimlette.