parbuckle · noun — A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is fastened aloft, and both ends of the rope are looped under, then over the cylinder and looped back towards the attachment point. The object rests in the loops, and rolls upward in them as the rope ends are hauled up, or downward when the ends are payed out. It carries an Arena rating of 1529, earned across 58 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, parbuckle ranks #4 of 17,153 for Most Ingenious Words, #234 of 17,135 for Most Satisfying to Say, #546 of 17,153 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,255 of 17,154 for Most Whimsical Words.
Why “parbuckle” is a great word
PARBUCKLE — [Noun, Verb] A method for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical object, such as a cask, using a rope looped around it. Earliest forms (c. 1625) are parbuncle, parbunkel, and parbunkle, of unknown earlier origin, but influenced by 'buckle' and French 'boucle' ("loop"). Unlike a winch, which winds cable onto a mechanical drum, or a sling, which is a general support strap, a parbuckle is a specific friction-lock configuration of doubled rope. It is the elegant heave-and-roll that walks a heavy barrel up a gangplank, the grooved track worn by generations of hemp on a ship's gunwale, and the satisfying cinch that turns gravity into a manageable incline—a humble testament to solving monumental problems with a length of hemp and a clever bend.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Earliest forms are parbuncle, parbunkel and parbunkle. Of unknown earlier origin. Influenced by buckle and French boucle (“loop”)
noun
- A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is fastened aloft, and both ends of the rope are looped under, then over the cylinder and looped back towards the attachment point. The object rests in the loops, and rolls upward in them as the rope ends are hauled up, or downward when the ends are payed out.
- A double sling made of a single rope, for slinging a cask, gun, etc.
verb
- To hoist or lower by means of a parbuckle
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- parrel 60% match — A sliding loop of rope or metal, around the mast of a ship, to which a yard or gaff is fitted. vs parbuckle →
- burton 59% match — An arrangement of blocks and pulleys, especially for tightening rigging on a ship. vs parbuckle →
- becue 56% match — To make fast a rope to an anchor, used when anchored over a rocky bottom, so as to allow the anchor to be hoisted from its flukes to escape an entrapment on the bottom. vs parbuckle →
- bouse 55% match — To haul or hoist (something) with a tackle. vs parbuckle →
- bumkin 54% match — A short outrigger projecting from the side of the aft part of a square-rigged sailing ship, used as an attachment point for a rope (brace) used to set a yard-arm at different angles to a mast so to allow the ship to sail at different angles to the wind. vs parbuckle →
- buckle 54% match — A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else. vs parbuckle →
- parcelling 54% match — One of the long, narrow slips of canvas daubed with tar and wound about a rope like a bandage, before it is served; used also in mousing on the stays, etc. vs parbuckle →
- embarrel 54% match — To place in a barrel. vs parbuckle →