Gavel
['gæv(ə)l] or ['gævl]
Definition
(noun.) a small mallet used by a presiding officer or a judge.
Checked by Cecily--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A gable.
(n.) A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
(n.) The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc.
(n.) A mason's setting maul.
(n.) Tribute; toll; custom. [Obs.] See Gabel.
Checker: Marie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Mallet (of a presiding officer).
Edited by Harold
Definition
n. an old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed on the holder's death to all the sons equally.—v.t. to divide or distribute in this way.—ns. Gav′elkind a tenure now peculiar to Kent by which the tenant at fifteen can sell the estate or devise it by will the estate cannot escheat and on an intestacy the lands descend from the father to all sons in equal portions; Gav′elman a tenant holding land in gavelkind.
Checker: Sinclair
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a gavel, denotes you will be burdened with some unprofitable yet not unpleasant pursuit. To use one, denotes that officiousness will be shown by you toward your friends.
Edited by Dwight
Examples
- It had a reel to gather the grain to the cutter, and the grain platform was tilted to drop the gavel. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The development began by replacing the gavel receptacle on the right of that machine (Fig. 152) with a platform on which stood men who rode on the machine as they bound the grain. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- In a recent and more restricted sense, it is applied to a machine that cuts grain, separates it into gavels, and binds it. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The next step, and, perhaps the most important one, in the development of the reaper, was in providing automatic devices for binding the gavels of grain into sheaves. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- In 1806, Gladstone of England built and patented a machine which not only attempted to cut the grain, but also to deliver it in gavels to be bound. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The stalks should be cut close to the ground and thrown into bundles or gavels. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- This seat which carried the raker enabled him while riding to rake the grain from the platform and deposit it in gavels on the ground. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Editor: Peter