gimlet

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. [1]

Cocktail either named after the tool, in reference to its penetrating effects, or British Navy surgeon Gimlette.[2]

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪm.lət/

gimlet (plural gimlets)

1. A small screw-tipped tool for boring holes.
   • 1726 October 28, [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, William Butler Yeats, The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), "The Collar-bone of a Hare":

     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.
   • 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.

• auger

• gimlet-eyed
• gimlety

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).
2. (nautical, transitive) To turn round (an anchor) as if turning a gimlet.

• gimlet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia