Make Your Point: GIMLET

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pronounce GIMLET:

GIM lut

connect this word to others:

A gimlet eye is sharp, keen, piercing, penetrating, cutting, tr____ant ("slicing straight to the point: smart, effective, clear, direct").

Can you recall that last synonym?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

(Source)

(Source)

We've used the word "gimlet" in English since the 1400s. It might trace back to a Middle Dutch word meaning "little drill," which would make sense, because that's what a gimlet is: a handheld tool for drilling a hole.

Because gimlets are sharp and piercing, "gimlet" has also come to mean "sharp, piercing, thoughtful, and critical." We use it most often in the phrase "gimlet eye," as in "She has a gimlet eye for details" and "He turned a gimlet eye on the situation."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "They sell old-fashioned gimlets here."

Also an adjective: "She turned a gimlet eye on him."

Rarely, a verb, meaning "to pierce with a gimlet (or as if with a gimlet)," as in "I'm creeped out by goats' eyes; they seem to gimlet you" and "She gimleted her way into the conversation."

Other forms:

An alternate adjective is "gimlet-eyed," as in "It's a gimlet-eyed analysis."

how to use it:

When you want to emphasize how someone is regarding something with deep suspicion, careful analysis, or both, say that they're looking at it with gimlet eyes, or with a gimlet eye, or through a gimlet eye. Or say that they're turning a gimlet eye to it, or fixing a gimlet eye onto it.

Your audience is likely to know what you mean even if they're unfamiliar with the word "gimlet."

examples:

"Like Ms. Holofcener’s other movies, 'Please Give...' offers gimlet observations about quotidian stuff—friends’ romances, sibling rivalry, real estate envy."
— Melena Ryzik, New York Times, 23 April 2010

"Students do all sorts of things to make themselves look attractive to admissions officers. Some people with athletic talents spend more time on high school sports than they otherwise would have... Of course, the admissions folks are wise to this. They know the system creates incentives for tendentious self-curating, and read applications with a gimlet eye."
— Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 16 November 2025

has this page helped you understand "gimlet"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "gimlet" without saying "sharp" or "analytical."

try it out:

Check out this example from the New York Times:

"The Edwardian era never looked quite as beguilingly sinister as it did through the gimlet eyes of Hector Hugh Munro, better known by his pen name, Saki."

In other words, Saki's stories offered a sharp, piercing, thoughtful, critical view of the Edwardian era. (If you've read some of those stories, I bet you agree! Here's a short one that absolutely looks at its privileged main character with gimlet eyes: "Mrs. Packletide's Tiger.")

With Saki in mind as an example, see if you can name another creator (maybe another author, or a director, a musician, or an artist) who seems to view their subject matter through gimlet eyes.

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Recapitate the Headlines."

I'll give you some real but decapitated headlines, along with a selection of heads, and you try to reassemble them as they were originally published. (Or, feel free to play in "wrong answers only" mode, assembling the headlines in whatever way you find funniest.)

For example, if I give you these:

__________ make cat immortal
__________ never stop pooping
__________ get passwords simply by asking

Florida woman kidnaps scientist to
Lawsuit says Clorox hackers
These majestic seabirds

Then you would give me:

Florida woman kidnaps scientist to make cat immortal
These majestic seabirds never stop pooping
Lawsuit says Clorox hackers get passwords simply by asking

Try these today:

__________ Gen Z's latest party trend in India
__________ Polish ice cream parlor
__________ the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition

Fake weddings:
Medieval knight's complete skeleton discovered beneath
Tua Tagovailoa is "not too sure" how he landed on

To see the correct versions, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of GIMLET, the adjective, could be

A. ONEROUS (difficult, heavy, and troublesome).
B. OBTUSE (dull, slow, stupid, clumsy, or insensitive).
C. OBTRUSIVE (sticking out in an irritating and unwelcome way).

2. The Washington Post praised Joan Didion's essay collection Let Me Tell You What I Mean, calling it "an excellent introduction to Didion's gimlet _____ American life."

A. eye on
B. mirror of
C. window to

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > GIMLET

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.