winkle out

verb — 2 senses

winkle out

verb

Etymology From winkle (“to extract”), from periwinkle (“a mollusk”).

1

UK To acquire with difficulty, as by thorough scrutiny.

Tom managed to winkle the truth out of John eventually.
He watched her blink rapidly and choose a difference sort of release: “I mean, since you’re so good at winkling people out!”2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

2

To get (something or someone) out of an entrenched position.

[…] was mopping up the remnants of German resistance and trying to winkle out individual enemy soldiers from their hiding places.2011, Ken Ford, Operation Archery: The Commandos and the Vaagso Raid 1941, page 59:
[…] using cloak-and-dagger methods to winkle out unwanted tenants and assemble vacant sites […]2012, Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, page 67:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.