winkle

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: win=kle

CIDE DICTIONARY

winkle, n. [AS. wincle.].

 Any periwinkle.  [1913 Webster]
" These are large mollusks which often destroy large numbers of oysters by drilling their shells and sucking their blood."  [1913 Webster]

Sting winkle, a European spinose marine shell (Murex erinaceus). See Illust. of Murex.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

winkle, n. & v.
--n. any edible marine gastropod mollusc of the genus Littorina; a periwinkle.
--v.tr. (foll. by out) esp. Brit. extract or eject (winkled the information out of them).

Idiom

winkle-picker sl. a shoe with a long pointed toe.

Derivative

winkler n.

Etymology

abbr. of PERIWINKLE(2): cf. WIG(1)