corkscrewing

verb

present participle of corkscrew
1
as in pulling
to draw out by force or with effort practically every word had to be corkscrewed out of the tight-lipped witness

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in winding
to follow a circular or spiral course the trail corkscrews through dense woods to the top of the steep hill

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of corkscrewing Bystanders captured video showing the jet corkscrewing toward the ground, then disappearing behind homes before a large black plume of smoke appears. — Pete Muntean, CNN Money, 13 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for corkscrewing
  1. pulling
  2. winding
  3. prying
  4. coiling
  5. yanking
  6. curling
  7. extracting
  8. curving
Verb
  • One of the most fun parts of writing comedy is coming up with alt after alt after alt for a joke, pulling ever-increasingly stupid punch lines out of one’s ass.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The deputy made a U-turn and saw the man, who deputies say is 49-year-old Brenton Burke, kneeling under the truck’s steering column and pulling wires, the arrest report states.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of pulling
Verb
  • Its main street is lined with shops selling handblown glass and cozy knits, and colorful boats bob along its winding waterways.
    — Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Along with that oh-so-sweet commercial success came rounds of discourse that callously dissected her racial identity, her relationship with her Blackness, and the winding history of genre in the context of American music.
    — Kyle Denis, Billboard, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of winding
Verb
  • Or two birds face-to-face in close proximity, covering themselves with their wings as if to share a secret kiss away from prying eyes, could evoke a giggle.
    — Amarachi Orie, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Davidson was thrust into a reality-TV world of prying paparazzi and untold media scrutiny.
    — Marlow Stern, Variety, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of prying
Verb
  • In those animals, a mutation in another gene can produce left-coiling individuals, but it is also associated with abnormal development.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 17 Oct. 2026
  • The stock has spent two months coiling in a narrow range, so the levels that matter are close by.
    — Josh Brown,Sean Russo, CNBC, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of coiling
Verb
  • Shortly after, the video shows the same officer yanking him to the ground, punching and kicking him.
    — Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Zabransky was the first person to reach Rabb in the end zone, yanking him into the air for a bear hug.
    — Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of yanking
Verb
  • Diaby scored the winner on a nifty shot from outside the box, curling it into the top right corner of the net for his second goal in his eighth MLS match.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, meanwhile, became the first American team to win a medal in Olympic mixed doubles curling, taking silver.
    — Preston Fore, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of curling
Verb
  • In the Johnson administration, that has taken a back seat to extracting cash from those deemed by these redistributionists as having too much of it.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 22 Oct. 2026
  • For supporters, the proposal represents an emergency fiscal response aimed at temporarily extracting revenue from unprecedented concentrations of wealth.
    — Trevor Laurence Jockims, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of extracting
Verb
  • The tangle of stubby points stood out like overgrown thumbs, and the down-curving prongs on either side of his head were at least a foot long.
    — Al Dawson, Outdoor Life, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Elsewhere, the opposition are man-to-man across the pitch, with full-backs ready to jump forward and McBurnie curving his run to block out the short pass to Tyrone Mings.
    — Thom Harris, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of curving

Browse Nearby Words

corkscrewed
corkscrewing
corkscrews
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Corkscrewing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/corkscrewing. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of disparate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All