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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cork.

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

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɔɹk/General-American/kɔːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water.

    uncountable
  2. The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water. The phellem of the cork oak, used for making bottle stoppers, flotation devices, and insulation material.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A bottle stopper made from this or any other material.

    countable · uncountable
    Snobs feel it's hard to call it wine with a straight face when the cork is made of plastic.
  4. An angling float, also traditionally made of oak cork.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The cork oak, Quercus suber.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-sder. Latin cortexder.? ▲ Latin cortexder. Mozarabic *kórčo, *kórčeder.? Spanish corchobor. Middle Dutch curcder. Middle English cork English 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.

verb/kɔɹk/General-American/kɔːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To seal or stop up, especially with a cork stopper.

    transitive
  2. To blacken (as) with a burnt cork.

    transitive
  3. To leave the cork in a bottle after attempting to uncork it.

  4. To fill with cork.

  5. 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.

    transitive
    He corked his bat, which was discovered when it broke, causing a controversy.
  6. To injure through a blow; to induce a haematoma.

    Australia · transitive
    The vicious tackle corked his leg.
  7. 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.

  8. To block (a street) illegally, to allow a protest or other activity to take place without traffic.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-sder. Latin cortexder.? ▲ Latin cortexder. Mozarabic *kórčo, *kórčeder.? Spanish corchobor. Middle Dutch curcder. Middle English cork English 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.

noun/kɔɹk/General-American/kɔːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. An aerialist maneuver involving a rotation where the rider goes heels over head, with the board overhead.

Where this word comes from

From the traversal path resembling that of a corkscrew.

verb/kɔɹk/General-American/kɔːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To perform such a maneuver.

Where this word comes from

From the traversal path resembling that of a corkscrew.

adj/kɔɹk/General-American/kɔːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Having the property of a head over heels rotation.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From the traversal path resembling that of a corkscrew.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.