corkscrewing

Verb

corkscrew (third-person singular simple present corkscrews, present participle corkscrewing, simple past and past participle corkscrewed)

1. (intransitive) To wind or twist in the manner of a corkscrew; to move with much horizontal and vertical shifting.
   • Into the tea–room Mr. Pickwick turned; and catching sight of him, Mr. Bantam corkscrewed his way through the crowd and welcomed him with ecstasy.1832, Charles Dickens, chapter 35, in The Pickwick Papers
2. (transitive) To cause something to twist or move in a spiral path or shape.
   • Caught and twisted—corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab’s boat.1851, Herman Melville, chapter 134, in Moby-Dick

   Synonyms:

   spiral

3. (informal, transitive) To extract information or consent from someone.
   • I strongly suspect (from what Small has dropped, and from what we have corkscrewed out of him) that those letters I was to have brought to your ladyship were not destroyed when I supposed they were.1852, Charles Dickens, chapter 55, in Bleak House

See all 8 meanings of corkscrew