Dictionary

winkle out en · VERB

Etymology

From winkle (“to extract”), from periwinkle (“a mollusk”).

Meanings

1. (UK, transitive) To acquire with difficulty, as by thorough scrutiny.
   • Tom managed to winkle the truth out of John eventually.
   • He watched her blink rapidly and choose a difference sort of release: “I mean, since you’re so good at winkling people out!” 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
2. (transitive) To get (something or someone) out of an entrenched position.
   • […] was mopping up the remnants of German resistance and trying to winkle out individual enemy soldiers from their hiding places. 2011, Ken Ford, Operation Archery: The Commandos and the Vaagso Raid 1941, page 59:
   • […] using cloak-and-dagger methods to winkle out unwanted tenants and assemble vacant sites […] 2012, Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, page 67:

Forms