A gimlet is a

hand tool A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, an ...

for

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at ...

small holes, mainly in wood, without splitting. It was defined in

Joseph Gwilt Joseph Gwilt (11 January 1784 – 14 September 1863) was an English architect and writer. He was the son of George Gwilt, architect surveyor to the county of Surrey, and was born at Southwark. George Gwilt the Younger, was his elder brother. H ...

's ''Architecture'' (1859) as "a piece of steel of a semi-cylindrical form, hollow on one side, having a cross handle at one end and a worm or screw at the other". A gimlet is always a small tool. A similar tool of larger size is called an

auger Auger may refer to: Engineering * Wood auger, a drill for making holes in wood (or in the ground) ** Auger bit, a drill bit * Auger conveyor, a device for moving material by means of a rotating helical flighting * Auger (platform), the world's f ...

. The cutting action of the gimlet is slightly different from an auger and the initial hole it makes is smaller; the cutting edges pare away the wood, which is moved out by the spiral sides, falling out through the entry hole. This also pulls the gimlet farther into the hole as it is turned; unlike a

bradawl A bradawl is a woodworking hand tool with a blade similar to that of a straight screwdriver and a handle's made from wood or plastic. Purpose A bradawl is used to make indentations in wood or other materials in order to ease the insertion of a ...

, pressure is not required once the tip has been drawn in. The name ''gimlet'' comes from the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

, , later , probably a diminutive of the

Anglo-French Anglo-French (or sometimes Franco-British) may refer to: *France–United Kingdom relations *Anglo-Norman language or its decendants, varieties of French used in medieval England *Anglo-Français and Français (hound), an ancient type of hunting d ...

, a variation of "guimble", from the Middle Low German (cf. the

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

n , 'to bore or twist'). Modern French uses the term , also the French for "tendril".''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

'', 2nd. Edition, (1989)

Use as a metaphor

The term is also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing, and also to describe the twisting, boring motion of using a gimlet. The term ''gimlet-eyed'' can mean sharp-eyed or squint-eyed (one example of this use is Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, who was known as "Old Gimlet Eye").

References

{{Authority control Woodworking hand tools Hole making de:Bohrer#Nagelbohrer

Use as a metaphor

Further reading

References