Cork
Cork (kôrk) , noun
[Compare German, Danish, & Swedish kork, Dutch kurk; all from Sp. corcho, from Latin cortex, corticis, bark, rind. Compare Cortex.]
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.
Collocations (2)
Cork jackets , a jacket having thin pieces of cork inclosed within canvas, and used to aid in swimming.
Cork tree (Botany) , the species of oak (Quercus Suber of Southern Europe) whose bark furnishes the cork of commerce.
Cork (kôrkt) , transitive verb
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.
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.