1. The lightweight elastic outer bark of the cork oak, used especially for bottle closures, insulation, floats, and crafts.
2. 1. Something made of cork, especially a bottle stopper.
   2. A bottle stopper made of other material, such as plastic.
3. A small float used on a fishing line or net to buoy up the line or net or to indicate when a fish bites.
4. Botany. A nonliving, water-resistant protective tissue that is formed on the outside of the cork cambium in the woody stems and roots of many seed plants. Also called phellem.

1. To stop or seal with or as if with a cork.
2. To restrain or check; hold back: tried to cork my anger.
3. To blacken with burnt cork.

[Middle English, from Dutch kurk or Low German korck, both from Spanish alcorque, cork-soled shoe, probably from Arabic dialectal al-qūrq : al-, the + qūrq (from Latin quercus, oak).]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.