• (British, America) IPA: /ˈɡɪm.lət/

gimlet (plural gimlets)

1. A small screw#Noun|screw-tipped tool#Noun|tool for bore#Verb|boring holes.

   cot en

   • 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], chapter II, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039 ↗, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):

     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.

   • 1917 November, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “The Collar-bone of a Hare”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, Other Verses an a Play in Verse, Churchtown, Dundrum [Dublin]: The Cuala Press, OCLC 4474827 ↗, page 3 ↗:

     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 [...]

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

   cot en

   • 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 9781101580394), page 98:

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

• French: vrille
• German: Nagelbohrer
• Italian: succhiello
• Portuguese: verruma, broca, trado
• Russian: буравчик
• Spanish: barrena de mano

• French: gimlet
• German: Gimlet

gimlet (gimlets, present participle gimleting; past and past participle gimleted)

1. To pierce or bore holes (as if using a gimlet).
2. (nautical, transitive) To turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.

• French: vriller
• Italian: succhiellare
• Portuguese: verrumar
• Russian: буравить