gimlety
gimlety adjective: resembling a gimlet or gimlets.
Adjective
gimlety (comparative more gimlety, superlative most gimlety)
- Resembling a gimlet or gimlets.
- […] in my opinion a man can’t raise good stock in no such way. They’ll be picayunish and nice and sharp featured and gimlety, but they won’t do to bet on like them children that’s been bro’t up ’round a fire-place on a hundred acre farm and had plenty of fresh air and latitude.1892, Bill Arp (as Chas. H. Smith), chapter 28, in The Farm and the Fireside: Sketches of Domestic Life in War and in Peace, page 150
- though thy cap be queer, / And thy curls gimlety, and thy cheeks thin,1900, James Whitcomb Riley, “Mother Goose”, in Rhymes of Childhood, page 19
- Piercing, sharp-sighted.
- His jaw had shut like a rat-trap, and there was the fire of battle in his gimlety eyes.1915, John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps
- Out of the black window Steerpike saw, as a result of his cough, the small gimlety eyes peer coldly from a crimson wedge.1946, Mervyn Peake, “Near and Far”, in Titus Groan, Penguin, published 1981, page 142
Examples of gimlety in a sentence
- He had not the virile and spiritual tenacity of his uncle Charles II or of his grandfather Charles I, but he had a sort of gimlety tenacity which was not to be despised.1939, Hilaire Belloc, chapter 12, in Charles II: The Last Rally, page 237:
- He gives me a gimlety appraising glance through his silver rims […]1991, Anthony Philpot, chapter 8, in Brothers in Christ: A Call to Fraternity in the Diocesan Priesthood, page 45:
Forms of gimlety
| comparative | more gimlety |
|---|---|
| superlative | most gimlety |
Origin of gimlety
From gimlet + -y.
Questions about gimlety
- What does gimlety mean?
- Gimlety means resembling a gimlet or gimlets.
- How do you use gimlety in a sentence?
- He had not the virile and spiritual tenacity of his uncle Charles II or of his grandfather Charles I, but he had a sort of gimlety tenacity which was not to be despised.
- What part of speech is gimlety?
- Gimlety is an adjective.
Words near gimlety in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gimlety (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.
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Cite this entry: “gimlety.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gimlety. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.