Corkers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Splendid or outstanding people or things, often praised informally ; machines or workers that fit stoppers into bottle necks ; decisive remarks or facts that settle a dispute
2. Excellent, impressive items described in casual speech ; devices or operatives that seal bottles with cork ; conclusive statements that bring a debate to an end
3. Outstanding examples praised as first-rate in informal talk ; equipment or staff who push cork stoppers into bottles ; clinching points that finally resolve an argument

Etymology: Corkers is simply the plural of "corker", and the story of that noun is more about slang than about cork. The stopper came first: cork traces back through Middle Dutch "curc" and Spanish "corcho" to Latin "cortex", meaning bark, and entered English as the name of the bark of the cork oak. The "-er" ending is the ordinary English suffix for a person or thing that does something, so a corker is literally a thing that corks, a bottle stopper. The slang sense grew out of that literal one. A thing that could close a matter, or settle an argument, was said to "put a cork in" it, and something that finished a debate or an opponent was a corker. From there the word came to mean anything astonishing or superb, and in the plural "corkers" it is used for something exceptional or a knockout, as in "that's a corker."

Synonyms: humdinger, stunner, knockout