CORKSCREW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does corkscrew mean? 

• CORKSCREW (noun)
  The noun CORKSCREW has 1 sense:

1. a bottle opener that pulls corks

  Familiarity information: CORKSCREW used as a noun is very rare.

• CORKSCREW (verb)
  The verb CORKSCREW has 1 sense:

1. move in a spiral or zigzag course

  Familiarity information: CORKSCREW used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CORKSCREW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bottle opener that pulls corks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bottle screw; corkscrew

Hypernyms ("corkscrew" is a kind of...):

bottle opener (an opener for removing caps or corks from bottles)

• CORKSCREW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they corkscrew    ... he / she / it corkscrews   
Past simple: corkscrewed   
Past participle: corkscrewed   
-ing form: corkscrewing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move in a spiral or zigzag course

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

corkscrew; spiral

Hypernyms (to "corkscrew" is one way to...):

turn (change orientation or direction, also in the abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Really, Master Copperfield, he said, —I should say Mister, but I know you'll excuse the abit I've got into—you're so insinuating, that you draw me like a corkscrew!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In it lay some table linen and a large corkscrew.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A twisted curved structure such as a coil spring or corkscrew.

(Helix, NCI Thesaurus)

Good God! said my aunt, with great indignation, I am not going to be serpentined and corkscrewed out of my senses!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I went on, by passing the wine faster and faster yet, and continually starting up with a corkscrew to open more wine, long before any was needed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

What intolerable dulness to sit listening to the ticking of the clock; and watching Miss Murdstone's little shiny steel beads as she strung them; and wondering whether she would ever be married, and if so, to what sort of unhappy man; and counting the divisions in the moulding of the chimney-piece; and wandering away, with my eyes, to the ceiling, among the curls and corkscrews in the paper on the wall!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They followed, and I stepped at once out of the box-door into my bedroom, where only Steerforth was with me, helping me to undress, and where I was by turns telling him that Agnes was my sister, and adjuring him to bring the corkscrew, that I might open another bottle of wine.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A tender young cork, however, would have had no more chance against a pair of corkscrews, or a tender young tooth against a pair of dentists, or a little shuttlecock against two battledores, than I had against Uriah and Mrs. Heep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)