Definition of windlasses in English

Part of speech

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windlasses, verb, present, 3rd person singular of windlass (infinitive).
windlasses, noun, plural of windlass.

WordNet

Noun
windlass - lifting device consisting of a horizontal cylinder turned by a crank on which a cable or rope winds
		winch
		lifting device a device for lifting heavy loads
		ship a vessel that carries passengers or freight
		capstan a windlass rotated in a horizontal plane around a vertical axis; used on ships for weighing anchor or raising heavy sails

= synonym
= antonym
= related word

Wiktionary

windlass (Noun)
Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights.
windlass (Noun)
A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
windlass (Verb)
To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
windlass (Verb)
To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.

Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘

windlass (n.)
A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course; a shift.
windlass (v. i.)
To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
windlass (n.)
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.
windlass (n.)
An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.
windlass (v. t. & i.)
To raise with, or as with, a windlass; to use a windlass.

Marine DictionaryUniversal Dictionary of the Marine ⚓️

windlass
vindas, a machine used in merchant-ships to heave up the anchors from the bottom, &c.
The windlass is a large cylindrical piece of timber, fig. 15. plate XII. formed on the principles of the axis in peritrochio. It is supported at the two ends by two frames of wood, a, b, placed on the opposite sides of the deck near the fore-mast, called knight-heads, and is turned about in this position as upon an axis, by levers called handspecs, which are for this purpose thrust into holes bored through the body of the machine. See the article HEAVING.
The lower part of the windlass is usually about a foot above the deck. It is, like the capstern, furnished with strong pauls, c, d, to prevent it from turning backwards by the effort of the cable, when charged with the weight of the anchor, or strained by the violent jerking of the ship in a tempestuous sea. The pauls, which are formed of wood or iron, fall into notches, cut in the surface of the windlass, and lined with plates of iron. Each of the pauls being accordingly hung over a particular part of the windlass, falls eight times into the notches at every revolution of the machine, because there are eight notches placed on its circumference under the pauls. So if the windlass is twenty inches in diameter, and purchases five feet of the cable at every revolution, it will be prevented from turning back, or losing any part thereof, at every seven inches nearly, which is heaved in upon its surface.
As this machine is heaved about in a vertical direction, it is evident that the effort of an equal number of men acting upon it will be much more powerful than on the capstern; because their whole weight and strength are applied more readily to the end of the lever employed to turn it about. Whereas, in the horizontal movement of the capstern, the exertion of their force is considerably diminished. It requires, however, some dexterity and address to manage the handspec to the greatest advantage; and to perform this the sailors must all rise at once upon the windlass, and, fixing their bars therein, give a sudden jerk at the same instant, in which movement they are regulated by a sort of song or howl pronounced by one of their number.
The most dextrous managers of the handspec in heaving at the windlass are generally supposed the colliers of Northumberland: and of all European mariners, the Dutch are certainly the most aukward and sluggish in this manœuvre.

Sailor's Word-BookThe Sailor's Word-Book ⛵

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 DictionaryMilitary Dictionary and Gazetteer 💥

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.