cleat

/kliːt/

Etymology

From Middle English clete, from Old English *clēat (“block, wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaut, from Proto-Germanic *klautaz (“firm lump”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelewd-, from *gley- (“to glue, stick together, form into a ball”). Cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball; testicle”) and German Kloß (“clump”). See also clay and clout.

noun

  1. A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.“[...] the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast, to which the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.”
  2. A continuous metal strip, or angled piece, used to secure metal components.
  3. A device to quickly affix a line or rope, and from which it is also easy to release.
  4. A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe or wheel meant for better traction.“Near-synonym: calk”
  5. An athletic shoe equipped with cleats.“He needs to put on five pieces of gear: his helmet, left glove, right glove, left cleat, and right cleat.”

verb

  1. To strengthen with a cleat.“An inner floor over the whole area of the deck provides a space for all the cable and pipe runs. On one side the cables are cleated into a duct which is sealed against the ingress of water and oil; the pipe lines run underneath the opposite side floor.”
  2. To tie off, affix, stopper a line or rope, especially to a cleat.