gimlet

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English

a gimlet (tool)

Etymology

From Middle English gimlet etc., from Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-Norman wimble, a variation of guimble (“drill”), from the Middle Low German wiemel; continued in New French as gibelet.

Cocktail either named after the tool, in reference to its penetrating effects, or British Navy surgeon Thomas Gimlette (1857–1943).

Pronunciation

Noun

gimlet (plural gimlets)

  1. A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.
    Coordinate terms: auger, awl, drill
  2. A cocktail, usually made with gin and lime juice.
    Coordinate term: martini
    • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, published 2002, page 19:
      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.”
    • 2001, General Hospital (TV soap opera, August 28):
      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.
    • 2012, Stuart Woods, Unnatural Acts: A Stone Barrington Novel, Penguin, →ISBN, page 98:
      By seven, dinner was under way, and a bottle of vodka gimlets and one of martinis were in the freezer, chilling.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gimlet (third-person singular simple present gimlets, present participle gimleting or gimletting, simple past and past participle gimleted or gimletted)

  1. To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).
    • 1904, Edith Nesbit, The New Treasure Seekers, Chapter 2:
      Then there was an awful silence. The lady gimleted us again one by one with her blue eyes.
  2. (nautical, transitive) To turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.

Translations

References

  1. ^ John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “gimlet”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “gimlet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Noun

gimlet c

  1. gimlet (cocktail)
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