What does windlass mean?

Definitions for windlass
ˈwɪnd ləswind·lass

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word windlass.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. winch, windlassnoun

    lifting device consisting of a horizontal cylinder turned by a crank on which a cable or rope winds

Wiktionary

  1. windlassnoun

    Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights

  2. Etymology: windels or windas, vindass, from vinda + ass. Confer Icelandic vindilass.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Windlassnoun

    Etymology: wind and lace.

    Thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
    With windlasses, and with assays of byas,
    By indirections find directions out. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

Wikipedia

  1. Windlass

    The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder (barrel), which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound around the winch, pulling a weight attached to the opposite end. The Greek scientist Archimedes was the inventor of the windlass. The oldest depiction of a windlass for raising water can be found in the Book of Agriculture published in 1313 by the Chinese official Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty (fl. 1290–1333).

ChatGPT

  1. windlass

    A windlass is a mechanical device used for lifting or moving heavy objects. It typically consists of a horizontal cylinder or barrel that is rotated using a crank or belt to wind up a rope or chain, which can lift, lower, or pull a heavy load. This device is commonly used in ships for raising the anchor and also in wells to draw water.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Windlassnoun

    a winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course; a shift

  2. Windlassverb

    to take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means

  3. Windlassnoun

    a machine for raising weights, consisting of a horizontal cylinder or roller moving on its axis, and turned by a crank, lever, or similar means, so as to wind up a rope or chain attached to the weight. In vessels the windlass is often used instead of the capstan for raising the anchor. It is usually set upon the forecastle, and is worked by hand or steam

  4. Windlassnoun

    an apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow

  5. Windlass

    to raise with, or as with, a windlass; to use a windlass

  6. Etymology: [Perhaps from wind to turn + lace.]

Wikidata

  1. Windlass

    The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder, which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound around the winch, pulling a weight attached to the opposite end.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Windlass

    wind′las, n. a modification of the wheel and axle, used for raising weights, consisting of a revolving cylinder.—v.i. to use a windlass.—v.t. to hoist by means of such. [Skeat explains as a corruption, due to confusion with the succeeding word, of M. E. windas, a windlass—Ice. vindássvinda, to wind; Dut. windas.]

  2. Windlass

    wind′las, n. (Shak.) indirect, crafty action.—v.i. to take a round-about course. [For wind-lace, a winding course; from wind (n.) and lace, a twist.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. windlass

    [from the Ang.-Sax. windles]. A machine erected in the fore-part of a ship which serves to ride by, as well as heave in the cable. It is composed of the carrick-heads or windlass-heads, which are secured to all the deck-beams beneath, and backed by long sleeper knees on deck. The main-piece is whelped like the capstan, and suspended at its ends by powerful spindles falling into metal bearings in the carrick or windlass heads. Amidships it is supported by chocks, where it is also furnished with a course of windlass-pawls, four taking at separate angles on a main ratchet, and bearing on one quadrant of the circumference. The cables have three turns round this main-piece (one cable on each side): holes are cut for the windlass-bars in each eighth of the squared sides. The windlass may be said also to be supported or reinforced by the pawl-bitts, two powerful bitt-heads at the centre.--Spanish windlass. A machine formed of a handspike and a small lever, usually a tree-nail, or a tree-nail and a marline-spike, to set up the top-gallant rigging, heave in seizings, or for any other short steady purchase.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. windlass

    An axis, or roller of wood, square at each end, through which are either cross-holes for handspikes, or staves across, to turn it round, by which operation it draws a rope, one end of which is attached to a weight, which is thus raised from any depth.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of windlass in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of windlass in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

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"windlass." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/windlass>.

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