cork   (kôrk)    n.   The lightweight elastic outer bark of the cork oak, used especially for bottle closures, insulation, floats, and crafts. Something made of cork, especially a bottle stopper. A bottle stopper made of other material, such as plastic. A small float used on a fishing line or net to buoy up the line or net or to indicate when a fish bites. 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. tr.v.   corked, cork·ing, corks To stop or seal with or as if with a cork. To restrain or check; hold back: tried to cork my anger. 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; see perkwu- in Indo-European roots).]

Cork

Cork\ (k[^o]rk), n. [Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. kork, D. kurk; all fr. Sp. corcho, fr. L. cortex, corticis, bark, rind. Cf. Cortex.]

1. The outer layer of the bark of the cork tree (Quercus Suber), of which stoppers for bottles and casks are made. See Cutose.

2. A stopper for a bottle or cask, cut out of cork.

3. A mass of tabular cells formed in any kind of bark, in greater or less abundance.

Note: Cork is sometimes used wrongly for calk, calker; calkin, a sharp piece of iron on the shoe of a horse or ox.

Cork jackets, a jacket having thin pieces of cork inclosed within canvas, and used to aid in swimming.

Cork tree (Bot.), the species of oak (Quercus Suber of Southern Europe) whose bark furnishes the cork of commerce.

cork 

cork   (kôrk)  Pronunciation Key  The outermost layer of tissue in woody plants that is resistant to the passage of water vapor and gases and that becomes the bark. Cork is secondary tissue, formed on the outside of the tissue layer known as cork cambium. The cell walls of cork cells contain suberin. Once they mature, cork cells die. Also called phellem. The lightweight, elastic outer bark of the cork oak, which grows near the Mediterranean Sea. Cork is used for bottle stoppers, insulation, and other products.