cork Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun outer bark of the cork oak; used for stoppers for bottles etc.
  2. noun (botany) outer tissue of bark; a protective layer of dead cells
    phellem.
  3. noun a port city in southern Ireland
  4. noun the plug in the mouth of a bottle (especially a wine bottle)
    bottle cork.
  5. noun a small float usually made of cork; attached to a fishing line
    bob; bobfloat; bobber.
  6. verb close a bottle with a cork
    cork up.
  7. verb stuff with cork
    • The baseball player stuffed his bat with cork to make it lighter

WordNet

Cork noun
Etymology
Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. kork, D. kurk; all fr. Sp. corcho, fr. L. cortex, corticis, bark, rind. Cf. Cortex.
Definitions
  1. The outer layer of the bark of the cork tree (Quercus Suber), of which stoppers for bottles and casks are made. See Cutose.
  2. A stopper for a bottle or cask, cut out of cork.
  3. A mass of tabular cells formed in any kind of bark, in greater or less abundance. ✍ Cork is sometimes used wrongly for calk, calker; calkin, a sharp piece of iron on the shoe of a horse or ox.
Cork transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Corked present participle & verbal noun Corking
Definitions
  1. To stop with a cork, as a bottle.
  2. To furnish or fit with cork; to raise on cork.
    Tread on corked stilts a prisoner's pace. Bp. Hall.
    ✍ To cork is sometimes used erroneously for to calk, to furnish the shoe of a horse or ox with sharp points, and also in the meaning of cutting with a calk.

Webster 1913