Winkle-hawk

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A rectangular tear or cut in clothing or any other fabric, shaped like a try square. New-York, obsolete, rare

    "The spekilation ha'n't turned out just so good as I expected, but it might have been worse ; anyhow, it's a comfort to walk off without a winkle-hawk in one's character for 'cuteness."

Example

More examples

"The spekilation ha'n't turned out just so good as I expected, but it might have been worse ; anyhow, it's a comfort to walk off without a winkle-hawk in one's character for 'cuteness."

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch winkelhaak (“try square, rectangular tear or cut”), from Middle Dutch winkelhake (“try square”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.