winkle out

winkle out

English

Etymology

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

Verb

winkle out (third-person singular simple present winkles out, present participle winkling out, simple past and past participle winkled out)

1. (transitive, Britain) To acquire with difficulty, as by thorough scrutiny.

   Tom managed to winkle the truth out of John eventually.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:

     He watched her blink rapidly and choose a difference sort of release: “I mean, since you’re so good at winkling people out!”

2. (transitive) To get (something or someone) out of an entrenched position.
   • 2011, Ken Ford, Operation Archery: The Commandos and the Vaagso Raid 1941, page 59

     […] was mopping up the remnants of German resistance and trying to winkle out individual enemy soldiers from their hiding places.

   • 2012, Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, page 67

     […] using cloak-and-dagger methods to winkle out unwanted tenants and assemble vacant sites […]