winkle
English translation: 1) very vulnerable 2) on the brain
| 09:53 Sep 27, 2006 |
| English language (monolingual) [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / literature | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Neil Mann Finland Local time: 13:39 | ||||||
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Answers
3 mins confidence: 
can this help? Explanation: 1. any of various marine gastropods; periwinkle. –verb (used with object) 2. Informal. to pry (something) out of a place, as winkle meat is dug out of its shell with a pin (usually fol. by out). [Origin: 1575–85; short for periwinkle] |
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26 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
peer agreement (net): +31. The most vulnerable, most likely to suffer. 2. Vulgar use of winkle to suggest or imply penis Explanation: The Time article is entitled "Winkles on Pins", so the literal explanation about a pin being used to extract the winkle from its shell is correct, and it is used here and later in the article to mean the most vulnerable. But note that Sir P. says he felt like "Rip van Winkle", a character in a story who fell asleep before the US War of Independence and awoke many years later to find himself in the USA. When the Kingsley Amis character says "You've got this "rude" business on the winkle, Margaret", I think he means that she finds the word amusing because it can be used in a way that implies it measn penis, as in a rude song, the chorus of which is: "I couldn't get my winkle out, oh, isn't it a shame! Whenever I got my winkle out, I went back in again". (Tried to trace this song on Google, but couldn't find it). 1 http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,7627... he was the winkle on the pin if war should ever begin in earnest 2 From "Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis: You've got this "rude" business on the winkle, Margaret. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 28 mins (2006-09-27 10:22:22 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- (Sorry, copied part of question into answer box and forgot to delete it.) |
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