winkle
/ˈwɪŋkəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.71 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A periwinkle or its shell, of family Littorinidae.
noun
Any one of various marine spiral gastropods, especially, in the United States, either of two species Busycotypus canaliculatus or Busycon carica.
verb
Synonym of winkle out (“to acquire or extract with difficulty”).
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "[…] because the inward Eare is intorted like a winkle-shell, and hangeth as a bell in thee steeple of the body, it easily perceiueth all appulsions of the Ayre."
- "Shrimps and winkles are the staple commodities of the afternoon trade, which lasts from three to half-past five in the evening. These articles are generally bought by the working-classes for their tea."
- "Sometimes late at night men would come in with a pail of winkles they had bought cheap, and share them out."
- "Briony was on her knees, trying to put her arms round Lola and gather her to her, but the body was bony and unyielding, wrapped tight about itself like a seashell. A winkle."
- "There were also found fragments of the winkle (Fulgar carica)."
- "The conchs or winkles, Busycon carica (fig. 204, opp. p. 216) and B. canaliculata, ... He gave the estimate of one planter who believed that one winkle was able to destroy a bushel of oysters in a single hour."
Etymology
Ellipsis of periwinkle.