1. a small edible sea snail with a spiral shell

1. to extract or obtain something with difficulty or persistence
Usage: informal

Examples

• We collected winkles from the rocky shore at low tide.
• The fisherman sold fresh winkles at the market.
• She used a pin to winkle the meat from the shell.
• The detective managed to winkle the truth from the witness.
• It took hours to winkle out all the details of the story.
• He tried to winkle information from his secretive colleague.