Gimlet

Gimlet may refer to:

Geography

Arts, entertainment, and media

Beverage

Nature

Technology

Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King

Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King is a character created by the British author W.E. Johns, best known as the creator of Biggles and Worrals. The name 'Gimlet' is derived from a sharp implement resulting in a term for someone with keen eyesight. Johns is thought to have been inspired by Major 'Gimlet' Champion, one of his commanding officers during his flying career. The rest of the name may have been inspired by South African soldier and adventurer William Lorraine King who died shortly before the first novel was published.

The books which were published during and after World War II, are about the adventures of explorer-soldier "Gimlet" King, and his intrepid band of followers. His regular colleagues are Corporal Albert Edward Collson, nicknamed "Copper" (he is an ex-policeman), Private "Trapper" Troublay, and Nigel Norman Peters, nicknamed "Cub". "Gimlet" and his team of commandos were designed to represent the multiple ethnicities of the British Empire; along with the English characters, French-Canadian, Scots, and European-educated Asians, co-operate for the good of Britain.

Gimlet (tool)

A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling small holes, mainly in wood, without splitting. It was defined in Joseph Gwilt'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. The cutting action of the gimlet is slightly different from an auger, however, as the end of the screw, and so 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, pressure is not required once the tip has been drawn in.

The name "gimlet" comes from the Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, later guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-French "wimble", a variation of "guimble", from the Middle Low German wiemel, cf. the Scandinavian wammie, to bore or twist; the modern French is gibelet.