An implement for opening bottles that are sealed by a cork. Sometimes specifically such an implement that includes a screw-shaped part, or worm.I opened the wine with a corkscrew.
There stood presented to his sight, Or seem'd to stand, the God of wine, ... This hand a Cork-scrue did contain, And that a Bottle of Champaign.
A corkscrew is designed so that when it is turned it creates effectively a helical undulation pushing it into the cork, whereas rotation in the opposite sense pulls it out.
A bubble rising rapidly in water describes a spiral closely resembling a corkscrew.
(boxing, martial arts) A type of sharp, twistingpunch, often one thrown close and from the side.
... the immovable McCoy let fly his most miraculous punch of the evening, of his lives, a world-beater of a right corkscrew, a punch years in the windup ...
1841, John Ruskin, , chapter IThen the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in the opposite direction, continued to spin until his long cloak was all wound neatly about him, clapped his cap on his head, very much on one side (for it could not stand upright without going through the ceiling), gave an additional twist to his corkscrew mustaches, and replied with perfect coolness.
1885, Rudyard Kipling,All the heat of a decade of fierce Indian summers is stored in the pitch-black, polished walls of the corkscrew staircase.
(intransitive) To wind or twist in the manner of a corkscrew; to move with much horizontal and vertical shifting.
1832, Charles Dickens, , chapter 35Into the tea–room Mr. Pickwick turned; and catching sight of him, Mr. Bantam corkscrewed his way through the crowd and welcomed him with ecstasy.
1916, John Buchan, , chapter 10The street corkscrewed endlessly. Sometimes it seemed to stop; then it found a hole in the opposing masonry and edged its way in.
1960, Lobsang Rampa, , chapter 5:Far off to starboard an Atlantic liner, all lights blazing, came towards us, corkscrewing with a motion which must have left the passengers unhappy.
(transitive) To cause something to twist or move in a spiral path or shape.
1851, Herman Melville, , chapter 134:Caught and twisted—corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab’s boat.
2006, Rocky Raab, Baggy Zero Four, page 155:Rusty corkscrewed the plane back down again, but instead of mashing the throttles to the wall, he pulled them to idle.
2007, Mike Monahan, Barracuda, page 107:Soon he was corkscrewed into place, suspended from the ceiling in an impossible maze of unforgiving circuitry.
1852, Charles Dickens, , Chapter 55:I strongly suspect (from what Small has dropped, and from what we have corkscrewed out of him) that those letters I was to have brought to your ladyship were not destroyed when I supposed they were.
Yes, I believe you did after it was corkscrewed out of you, but I got the impression at the outset that you were, just as willing to let it stand there.
