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cork Definition

cork (kôrk)

noun

  1. the light, thick, elastic outer bark of an oak tree, the cork oak (Quercus suber) of the beech family, that grows in the Mediterranean area: used for floats, stoppers, linoleum, insulation, etc.
    1. a piece of cork or something made of cork; esp., a stopper for a bottle, cask, etc.
    2. a similar stopper made of rubber, glass, etc.
  2. Bot. the dead, waterproof outer bark of the stems of woody plants

Etymology: ME < Sp corcho, cork, ult. (via ? Ar al-qurq) < L quercus, oak: see fir

adjective

made of cork

transitive verb

  1. to stop or seal with a cork
  2. to hold back; check
  3. to blacken with burnt cork
cork Idioms

blow one's cork

Slang to lose one's temper; become enraged
Cork Definition

Cork (kôrk)

  1. county on the S coast of Ireland, in Munster province: 2,880 sq mi (7,459 sq km); pop. 283,000
  2. its county seat, a seaport: pop. 174,000
cork Synonyms

cork

n.

cork Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • pop: Enough of the background, let's pop the cork.
  • pull: You pull the arm down and then raise it pulling the cork out of the bottle.
  • remove: Plastic screw cork lovingly removed, held high in shipyard hardened hands.

Adjective modifier

  • burnt: Chris no longer needed to rub burnt cork on his face to suggest Indy's whiskers.
  • synthetic: The entire Alpha Zeta range is sealed with synthetic cork.
  • plastic: Plastic screw cork lovingly removed, held high in shipyard hardened hands.

Modifies a noun

  • borer: You can do this by using a cork borer to fit the boiling tube.
  • stopper: Later examples have screw in pottery or metal stoppers, or a simple push in cork stopper.
  • oak: The forests are ancient, with cork oak trees living for up to 600 years.
  • taint: The cork industry have done a huge amount of work to find the causes of cork taint.
  • bark: The depth can be varied by placing smooth rocks or cork bark in the water will help the creatures stay out of trouble.
  • grease: Give the cork a really good application of cork grease.

Modifying Another Word

  • loosely: Pour while still warm into hot bottles and cork loosely.
  • tightly: In the morning skim off the yeast and bottle the liquid, but do not cork tightly at first.

Noun used with modifier

  • champagne: How do you loosen a stubborn champagne cork from the bottle?
  • crown: The lever device also contains a crown cork bottle opener. ideal buy along with the BBQ apron.
  • bottle: You simply remove the bottle cork to reveal a bubble wand.
  • wine: In my continuing straw pole on whether to use cork or plastic to stopper wine cork wins by 90 % .

Preposition: in

  • bottle: Whatever solution was to be adopted, Mr Stirling was quite right to characterize the farmer as " the cork in the bottle " .

Preposition: from

  • bottle: The wing nut action is for removing the cork from the bottle once the helix has been twisted into the cork normally.
cork Quotes

We live thetime that a match flickers; we pop the corkof a ginger-beer bottle, and the earthquake swallows us on the instant. Is it not odd, is it not incongruous, is it not, in the highest sense of human speech, incredible, that we should think so highly of the ginger-beer, and regard so little the devouring earthquake?

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

Without the Empire we should be tossed like a cork in the cross current of world politics.It is at once our sword and our shield.

—Hughes,William Morris

Browse dictionary entries near cork

  1. corium
  2. Coriolis force
  3. Coriolis effect
  4. Coriolanus
  5. Corinthians
  6. Corinthian
  7. Corinth
  8. Corinne
  9. coring
  10. coriander
  1. cork cambium
  2. cork elm
  3. corkage
  4. corkboard
  5. corker
  6. corkier
  7. corkiest
  8. corking
  9. corkscrew
  10. corkwood