winkle

Universal Words noun, verb noun (BrE) (also periwinkle AmE, BrE) a small shellfish, like a SNAIL, that can be eaten verb (BrE, informal) PHRASALVERBS winkle sth/sb<->out (of sth) to get sb/sth out of a place or position, especially when they do not want to leave winkle sth out of sb to get information from sb, especially with difficulty: She always manages to winkle secrets out of people.