Word of the Day

: June 24, 2010

winkle

verb WINK-ul

What It Means

1 : to displace, remove, or evict from a position -- usually used with out

2 : to obtain or draw out by effort -- usually used with out

winkle in Context

"In 1483 a new English king, Richard III, tried again to winkle Henry out of Brittany, but he found that the young man was now a significant pawn on the European chessboard." (Nigel Calder, The English Channel)

Did You Know?

If you have ever extracted a winkle from its shell, then you understand how the verb "winkle" came to be. The word "winkle" is short for "periwinkle," the name of a marine or freshwater snail. "Periwinkle" is ultimately derived from Latin "pina," the name of a mussel, and Old English "wincle," a snail shell. Evidently the personnel of World War I's Allied Powers found their duty of finding and removing the enemy from the trenches analogous to extracting a well-entrenched snail and began using "winkle" to describe their efforts. The action of "winkling the enemy out" was later extended to other situations, such as "winkling information out of someone."