windlass — English Dictionary

Noun

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.

   Examples

   With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.

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

Verb

1. To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.

   Examples

   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.

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

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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.

Noun

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

   Synonyms

   winch

   Broader terms

   lifting device