windlass
noun
- heraldic charge
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈwɪnd.ləs/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English wyndlas, wyndelas, wyndlasse, wyndelasse, probably an alteration (due to Middle English windel) of Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.
- Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights
- A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
“With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.”
- An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English wyndlas, wyndelas, wyndlasse, wyndelasse, probably an alteration (due to Middle English windel) of Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.
- To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
“A favoring breeze enabled us to sail all the way down the lake, and (having been windlassed across the haul-over) even down the canals.”
- To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
“He could not expect to allure him forward, and therefore drives him as far back as he can; that so he may be the more sure of him at the rebound; as a skilful woodsman, that by windlassing presently gets a shoot, which, without taking a compass and thereby a commodious stand, he could never have obtained.”