cork
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɔɹk/
ipa: /kɔːk/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)k
Forms: form: corks
form: corking
form: corked
form: corked
Etymology: From Middle English cork (“oak bark, cork”), from Middle Dutch curc (“cork (material or object)”), either from Spanish corcho (“cork (material or object)”) (also corcha or corche) or from Old Spanish alcorque (“cork sole”). Doublet of cortex.
Senses: examples: 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text
Arms draped on shoulders, kick-stepping in circles, they swing bottles of wine. Purpled thumbs cork the bottles. The wine leaps and jumps behind green glass.
glosses: To seal or stop up, especially with a cork stopper.
glosses: To blacken (as) with a burnt cork.
glosses: To leave the cork in a bottle after attempting to uncork it.
glosses: To fill with cork.
examples: text: He corked his bat, which was discovered when it broke, causing a controversy.
text: Apparently I used to have some good power even though I was little, but the team we were playing against thought I had corked the bat. I kid you not! They paid $200 to have the bat popped off to prove they were right.
ref: 2012, Kevin Neary, Leigh A. Tobin, Major League Dads:
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To fill with cork.
To tamper with (a bat) by drilling out part of the head and filling the cavity with cork or similar light, compressible material.
examples: text: The vicious tackle corked his leg.
text: Injuries, which seemed to be of an inconsequential nature, were often sustained, such as a sprained ankle, a dislocated phalanx, a twisted foot, a corked leg and so on.
ref: 2006, Joseph N. Santamaria, The Education of Dr Joe, page 60:
text: As he moved away again, William winced at an ache in his thigh.
‘Must have corked my leg when I got up,’ he thought.
ref: 2007, Shaun A. Saunders, Navigating in the New World, page 202:
text: “I′m okay. I must have corked my thigh when Bruce fell onto me. I′ll be fine.”
ref: 2008, Christopher J. Holcroft, Canyon, page 93:
text: 2010, Andrew Stojanovski, Dog Ear Cafe, large print 16pt, page 191,
Much to my relief he had only corked his leg when he had jumped.
text: I corked my thigh late in the game, which we won, and came off.
ref: 2010, Ben Cousins, Ben Cousins: My Life Story, page 108:
glosses: To injure through a blow; to induce a haematoma.
examples: text: Kate remembered then, the family fish camp a mile or so up Amartuq Creek, the very creek across the mouth of which Yuri Andreev had tried to cork Joe Anahonak not half an hour before.
ref: 1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 8:
text: But its soon apparent that there are more boats than fish—at least for the moment. We all drift quietly, keeping an eye out for other boats and other nets. Corking another guy's net is a screaming—bastard offense.
ref: 2003, George Lowe, Fisherman: The Strife and Times of Ronald K. Peterson of Ballard, →ISBN:
text: You're pissed if someone sets too close to you and especially if he sets his net right along yours, "corking" you and intercepting the fish that seem headed to your own net. I was close to this guy's outside net, but definitely not corking him.
ref: 2008, Bert Bender, Catching the Ebb: Drift-fishing for a Life in Cook Inlet, →ISBN, page 249:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To position one's drift net just outside of another person's net, thereby intercepting and catching all the fish that would have gone into that person's net.
examples: text: […] corking the streets is a challenge to capitalist ideologies, like skateboarding in parking lots and walkways […]
ref: 2022, Victoria A. Newsom, Lara Martin Lengel, Embodied Activisms, page 70:
glosses: To block (a street) illegally, to allow a protest or other activity to take place without traffic.