cork

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

cork, n. [Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. kork, D. kurk; all fr. Sp. corcho, fr. L. cortex, corticis, bark, rind. Cf. Cortex.].

•  The outer layer of the bark of the cork tree (Quercus Suber), of which stoppers for bottles and casks are made. See Cutose.  [1913 Webster]
•  A stopper for a bottle or cask, cut out of cork.  [1913 Webster]
•  A mass of tabular cells formed in any kind of bark, in greater or less abundance.  [1913 Webster]

  " Cork is sometimes used wrongly for calk, calker; calkin, a sharp piece of iron on the shoe of a horse or ox."  [1913 Webster]

Cork jackets, a jacket having thin pieces of cork inclosed within canvas, and used to aid in swimming. -- Cork tree (Bot.), the species of oak (Quercus Suber of Southern Europe) whose bark furnishes the cork of commerce.

cork, v. t. 

•  To stop with a cork, as a bottle.  [1913 Webster]
•  To furnish or fit with cork; to raise on cork.  [1913 Webster]

  " To cork is sometimes used erroneously for to calk, to furnish the shoe of a horse or ox with sharp points, and also in the meaning of cutting with a calk."  [1913 Webster]

  "Tread on corked stilts a prisoner's pace."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cork, n. & v.
--n.
1 the buoyant light-brown bark of the cork-oak.
2 a bottle-stopper of cork or other material.
3 a float of cork used in fishing etc.
4 Bot. a protective layer of dead cells immediately below the bark of woody plants.
5 (attrib.) made of cork.
--v.tr. (often foll. by up)
1 stop or confine.
2 restrain (feelings etc.).
3 blacken with burnt cork.

Idiom

cork-oak a S. European oak, Quercus suber. cork-tipped Brit. (of a cigarette) having a filter of corklike material.

Derivative

corklike adj.

Etymology

ME f. Du. & LG kork f. Sp. alcorque cork sole, perh. f. Arab.

THESAURUS

cork

Carling float, air, asphyxiate, balsa, balsa raft, bar, bark, bedarken, besmirch, bind, black, blacken, blackwash, block, block up, blockade, blot, blotch, bob, bonnet, boom, bottle up, box up, bubble, bung, buoy, cage, cap, caulk, ceil, censor, chaff, charcoal, check, check valve, chink, chip, choke, choke off, choke up, clamp down on, clog, clog up, cloister, cobweb, cock, coif, confine, congest, constipate, constrain, coop, coop in, coop up, cork up, cortex, cover, crack down on, crib, crown, crush, dam, dam up, damp down, darken, denigrate, detain, dinge, dome, down, drown, dust, ebonize, encage, enclose, epicarp, ether, extinguish, fairy, faucet, feather, fence in, fill, fill up, float, flue, fluff, foam, foul, froth, fuzz, gag, gossamer, hat, hem in, hold, hold down, hold in, hold in custody, hold in restraint, hood, immure, impound, inhibit, ink, jam, jump on, keep, keep down, keep in, keep in custody, keep in detention, keep under, kill, lid, life buoy, life preserver, life raft, lock in, maintain, melanize, mew, mew up, mote, murk, muzzle, nigrify, obstipate, obstruct, oversmoke, pack, peel, peeling, peg, pen, pen up, phellum, pin, plug, plug up, pontoon, pound, pour water on, preserve, put down, quash, quell, quench, raft, rail in, repress, restrain, restrict, retain, rind, roof, roof in, save, save up, sea cock, seal up, shackle, shade, shadow, shut down on, shut in, shut up, silence, sit down on, sit on, skin, smash, smirch, smoke, smother, smudge, smut, smutch, soot, spigot, spike, spile, spill, sponge, spume, squash, squelch, stanch, stay, stench, stifle, stop, stop up, stopgap, stopper, stopple, strangle, straw, stuff, stuff up, stultify, subdue, suffocate, suppress, surfboard, tap, thistledown, throttle, tip, top, valve, wall in

ROGET THESAURUS

cork

Stopper

N stopper, stopple, plug, cork, bung, spike, spill, stopcock, tap, rammer, ram, ramrod, piston, stop-gap, wadding, stuffing, padding, stopping, dossil, pledget, tompion, tourniquet, cover, valve, vent peg, spigot, slide valve, janitor, doorkeeper, porter, warder, beadle, cerberus, ostiary.

Levity

N levity, lightness, imponderability, buoyancy, volatility, feather, dust, mote, down, thistle, down, flue, cobweb, gossamer, straw, cork, bubble, balloon, float, buoy, ether, air, leaven, ferment, barm, yeast, lighter-than-air balloon, helium balloon, hydrogen balloon, hot air balloon, convection, thermal draft, thermal, light, subtile, airy, imponderous, imponderable, astatic, weightless, ethereal, sublimated, gossamery, suberose, suberous, uncompressed, volatile, buoyant, floating, portable, light as a feather, light as a thistle, light as air, lighter than air, rise like a balloon, float like a balloon.