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windlass
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
windlass
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Another has him tortured to death by having his intestines pulled from him by a windlass.
▪ Because there was no windlass, both ends of the anchor line were shackled together, Ward said.
▪ Missing was a windlass, used to raise and lower the anchor.
▪ Sandy McGlashan, the windlass man, climbed down the ladder and came to sit beside Cameron.
▪ Some specialists said Thursday that the windlass might not have enabled the crew to anchor the barge in the storm.
▪ Y., was not violating any regulation by operating without a windlass, officials said.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Windlass

Windlass \Wind"lass\, n.[Perhaps from wind to turn + lace.] A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course; a shift.

Windlass

Windlass \Wind"lass\, v. i. To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means. [Obs.]
--Hammond.

Windlass

Windlass \Wind"lass\, n. [OE. windelas, windas, Icel. vindil[=a]ss, vind[=a]s, fr. vinda to wind + [=a]ss a pole; cf. Goth. ans a beam. See Wind to turn.]

  1. 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.

  2. An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

    Chinese windlass. See Differential windlass, under Differential.

Windlass

Windlass \Wind"lass\, v. t. & i. To raise with, or as with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
--The Century.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
windlass

device for raising weights by winding a rope round a cylinder, c.1400, alteration of wyndase (late 13c.), from Anglo-French windas, and directly from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse vindass, from vinda "to wind" (see wind (v.1)) + ass "pole, beam" (cognate with Gothic ans "beam, pillar").

Wiktionary
windlass

n. 1 Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights 2 A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course. 3 An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow. vb. 1 To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass. 2 To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.

WordNet
windlass

n. lifting device consisting of a horizontal cylinder turned by a crank on which a cable or rope winds [syn: winch]

Wikipedia
Windlass
For the tool used to raise paddle gear on canal locks, see Windlass ("lock key")

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 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).

Usage examples of "windlass".

Came clanks, rattles, splashes, yells, puffing of steam, creaking turns of the windlass, and a frenzy of running around, and a great cadenza of obscenity.

Men had broken their own bones on the timber spokes of the Sardar windlasses.

But Nadar had decreed that both balloons should depart together, and had installed an extra windlass of rope for that purpose, reasoning that a dual launch would confuse and make even more ineffectual the rifle fire from the enemy lines.

In his left hand, he carried a bouquet of flowers from the solarium at WindLass but even though he inspected each individual tombstone, he could not find hers here in the Boucharde family plot.

Cullen was on his way here and asked Coni to look after WindLass while she went to join you.

A Horse Stealer could use a goatsfoot to span a crossbow, or even an arbalest, which would have demanded a windlass of any human arm.

A comparatively short bowsprit and a long jibboom, three headsails lying in heaps at the foot of the stays, and he could just make out the upper curve of the drum of the windlass.

The first and second mates stand on stages lowered over the side, cutting the blubber from the whale as the crew heave it round with the windlass.

Steam rose from the holes, obscuring the windlasses and the diggers below.

It had a mousetrap of elaborate gutters and winding rainspouts that emptied into big barrels here and there, while a small wooden windlass secured with ropes and pulleys hung down the front of the building.

The first contained rusted shovelheads, a disembodied pickax handle, chisels, an ancient windlass missing its rope, a pair of moldy boots, and a safe lamp with a cracked guard.

The ends of all the running ropes, with the exception of the signal halyards and poop-down-haul, were rove through snatch-blocks, and led to the capstan or windlass, so that not a yard was braced or a sail set without the assistance of machinery.

The trebuchets creaked as the Tartessians heaved around the crank handles of the geared windlasses.

Advance down into the water by means of strong cables and windlasses, as the creek was so narrow that the submarine, if launched in the usual way, would poke her nose into the opposite mud bank and stick there.

Swift, and the various windlasses manned by the inventor, Tom and the others began to unwind their ropes.