countersink

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — count sits at #450Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

To countersink is to widen a hole's mouth so a screw sits flush. Countersink the holes first.

A screw head standing proud will catch on everything and split thin wood as it tightens. To countersink takes ten seconds and is the difference between neat work and not.

Definitions of countersink

1verbcountersinkTo widen a hole's mouth so a screw sits flush.C2
“He forgot to countersink and the hinge would not close.”

countersink is an action.

Where it comes from

Latin
computō
Medieval Latin
computātōrium
Old French
conteor
Middle English
countour
English
counter
English, today
countersink

From counter- + sink. counter Middle English countour, from Old French conteor (French comptoir), from Medieval Latin computātōrium, from Latin computō, equivalent to count + er. a doublet of cantore and computer and kontor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Tools & DIY

Practise this word

countersink in the wild

In manufacturing, a countersink is a conical hole cut into a manufactured object, or the cutter used to cut such a hole.
Countersink
The basic geometry of a countersink (cutter) inherently can be applied to the plunging applications described above (axial feed only) and also to other milling applications (sideways traversal).
Countersink
Whereas a counterbore is a flat-bottomed enlargement of a smaller coaxial hole, a countersink is a conical enlargement of such.
Counterbore
The nose on either type of screw gun can be adjusted to countersink screws to the desired depth.
Screw gun
With suitable bits it can also tap threads, ream, and countersink.
Magnetic drilling machine

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the conteor family

counter

countersink — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

← Vocabulary