English

Noun

1. 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.

   • 1. • 1. • 1. The screw-shaped worm of a typical corkscrew.
                  • 1. A type of sharp, twisting punch, often one thrown close and from the side.
                       • 1. A type of inversion used in roller coasters.
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                              Adjective

                              
                              
                              
                              1. Having the tightly winding shape of a corkscrew.
                                 • 1841, John Ruskin, The King of the Golden River, chapter I

                                   Then 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, "The City of Dreadful Night"

                                   All the heat of a decade of fierce Indian summers is stored in the pitch-black, polished walls of the corkscrew staircase.

                              
                              

                              Verb

                              
                              
                              
                              1. To wind or twist in the manner of a corkscrew; to move with much horizontal and vertical shifting.
                                 • 1832, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, chapter 35

                                   Into 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, Greenmantle, chapter 10

                                   The 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, The Rampa Story, 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.

                              2. To cause something to twist or move in a spiral path or shape.
                                 • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 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.

                              3. To extract information or consent from someone.
                                 • 1852, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 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.

                                 • 1922, James Thomas Heflin, in Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry^{http://books.google.com/books?id=lFYQAAAAIAAJ}, page 460:

                                   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.