Word.ws English Dictionary

cork

/kɔːk//kɔɹk/

cork noun: the dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water.

cork: the dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits...
Image: Libation U.N. Limited, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cork (countable and uncountable, plural corks)

  1. (uncountable) The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water.
    Synonyms:
    phellem
    1. The phellem of the cork oak, used for making bottle stoppers, flotation devices, and insulation material.
      • I confess my confidence was shaken by these actions, though I knew well enough that his leg was no more cork than my own1908, Edwin George Pinkham, Fate's a fiddler, page 108
      • Because cork is porous, it expands and contracts with changes in humidity.1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 48
  2. A bottle stopper made from this or any other material.
    • Snobs feel it's hard to call it wine with a straight face when the cork is made of plastic.
  3. An angling float, also traditionally made of oak cork.
  4. The cork oak, Quercus suber.

Verb (1)

cork (third-person singular simple present corks, present participle corking, simple past and past participle corked)

  1. (transitive) To seal or stop up, especially with a cork stopper.
    • 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.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
  2. (transitive) To blacken (as) with a burnt cork.
  3. To leave the cork in a bottle after attempting to uncork it.
  4. To fill with cork.
    1. (transitive) To tamper with (a bat) by drilling out part of the head and filling the cavity with cork or similar light, compressible material.
      • He corked his bat, which was discovered when it broke, causing a controversy.
      • 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.2012, Kevin Neary, Leigh A. Tobin, Major League Dads
  5. (Australia, transitive) To injure through a blow; to induce a haematoma.
    • The vicious tackle corked his leg.
    • 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.2006, Joseph N. Santamaria, The Education of Dr Joe, page 60
  6. 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.
    • 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.1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 8
    • 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.2003, George Lowe, Fisherman: The Strife and Times of Ronald K. Peterson of Ballard, →ISBN
  7. (transitive) To block (a street) illegally, to allow a protest or other activity to take place without traffic.
    • […] corking the streets is a challenge to capitalist ideologies, like skateboarding in parking lots and walkways […]2022, Victoria A. Newsom, Lara Martin Lengel, Embodied Activisms, page 70

Noun (2)

cork (plural corks)

  1. An aerialist maneuver involving a rotation where the rider goes heels over head, with the board overhead.

Verb (2)

cork (third-person singular simple present corks, present participle corking, simple past and past participle corked)

  1. To perform such a maneuver.

Adjective

cork (not comparable)

  1. Having the property of a head over heels rotation.

Proper noun capitalized: Cork

Cork

  1. The principal city of County Cork, Ireland.
  2. A county in the Republic of Ireland (County Cork).

cork meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

cork in Hindi

bottle stopper
ढक्कन ḍhakkan

cork in Tamil

தக்கை

cork in Marathi

cork, stopper, plug
बूच būċ

cork in Urdu

bottle stopper
ڈاٹ ḍāṭ
More languagesFewer languages
cork in Bengali
কাজ kaj, কর্ক kork
cork in Telugu
దట్టా daṭṭā, బిరడ biraḍa
cork in Malayalam
കോർക്കുമരത്തിൻറെ തൊലി, അടപ്പ്, കോർക്കുകഷണം, കോർക്കടപ്പ്
cork in Kannada
ಬೆಂಡು, ಬೆಣೆ, ಬಿರಡೆ, ಗಿಡುಕು
cork in Punjabi
ਕੋਰਕ
cork in Gujarati
બૂચ būc
cork in Assamese
ঠিলা thila, সোপা xüpa, কাগ kag
cork in Nepali
बिर्को birko
cork in Tagalog
tapón
cork in Arabic
فِلِّين fillīn, فِلِّينَة fillīna, فَدَام fadām, فِدَام fidām
cork in Malay
gabus, penyumbat botol
cork in Indonesian
gabus
cork in Thai
ก๊อก gɔ́k
cork in Vietnamese
nút
cork in Myanmar
ဘူးဆို့ bhu:hcui.

Examples of cork in a sentence

  • I must have corked my thigh when Bruce fell onto me.2008, Christopher J. Holcroft, Canyon, page 93:
  • I corked my thigh late in the game, which we won, and came off.2010, Ben Cousins, Ben Cousins: My Life Story, page 108:
  • 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.2008, Bert Bender, Catching the Ebb: Drift-fishing for a Life in Cook Inlet, →ISBN, page 249:

All 40 example sentences with cork

Synonyms of cork

Forms of cork

Noun
pluralcorks
Verb
third-person singular presentcorks
present participlecorking
past participlecorked
pastcorked

Plural of cork: corks

Origin of cork

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.

From the traversal path resembling that of a corkscrew.

From Irish Corcaigh (“bog, marsh, swamp”).

Words formed from cork

Phrases with cork

10 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cork

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cork

What does cork mean?
Cork means the dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water.
What is cork in Hindi?
Cork in Hindi is ढक्कन (ḍhakkan). See Cork meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cork in a sentence?
I must have corked my thigh when Bruce fell onto me.
What part of speech is cork?
Cork can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cork?
Cork is pronounced /kɔɹk/ (US).
What is the plural of cork?
The plural of cork is corks.

Words near cork in the dictionary

  1. corivalship
  2. corixid
  3. corixids
  4. Coriz
  5. Corizes
  6. cork
  7. cork borer
  8. cork borers
  9. cork cambia
  10. cork cambium
  11. cork cambiums

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cork (page history and authors); Cork (page history and authors); cork (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); बूच (Marathi) (page history and authors); దట్టా (Telugu) (page history and authors); cork (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cork (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cork (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); બૂચ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cork.ogg, EN-AU ck1 cork.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Cork.wav.

Cite this entry: “cork.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cork. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.