Gimlet-eyed

Word I Recently Had To Look Up:

gimlet-eyed: Having keen vision.

Okay. So what's a gimlet?

gimlet: A small hand tool having a spiraled shank, a screw tip, and a cross handle and used for boring holes.

It looks like a corkscrew with a drillbit on the end. Later in the definition, we're told that gimlet can also mean "to penetrate with or as if with a gimlet."

Raise your hand if you always assumed "gimlet-eyed" had something to do with the vodka and lime cocktail. Come on, get them up there...


(Here comes the email from the same two or three readers who write me every time to say they're just shocked I had to look the word up. In 3...2...1...)