Tiller
['tɪlə] or ['tɪlɚ]
Definition
(noun.) lever used to turn the rudder on a boat.
(noun.) someone who tills land (prepares the soil for the planting of crops).
(noun.) a shoot that sprouts from the base of a grass.
Inputed by Frieda--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) One who tills; a husbandman; a cultivator; a plowman.
(n.) A shoot of a plant, springing from the root or bottom of the original stalk; a sucker.
(n.) A sprout or young tree that springs from a root or stump.
(n.) A young timber tree.
(v. i.) To put forth new shoots from the root, or round the bottom of the original stalk; as, wheat or rye tillers; some spread plants by tillering.
(n.) A lever of wood or metal fitted to the rudder head and used for turning side to side in steering. In small boats hand power is used; in large vessels, the tiller is moved by means of mechanical appliances. See Illust. of Rudder. Cf. 2d Helm, 1.
(n.) The stalk, or handle, of a crossbow; also, sometimes, the bow itself.
(n.) The handle of anything.
(n.) A small drawer; a till.
Inputed by Erma
Definition
n. the handle or lever for turning a rudder.—ns. Till′er-chain -rope the chain or rope uniting the fore-end of the tiller with the steering-wheel.
Checker: Walter
Examples
- The rudder was of the pattern used on sailing-vessels, and was moved by a tiller. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- The exposed machinery creaked and groaned, the unguarded paddle-wheels revolved ponderously and splashed a great deal of water, the tiller was badly placed for steering. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- The tiller-ropes of another vessel were carried away and she, too, dropped helplessly back. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Tillers of the Soil no Longer Brothers of the Ox. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Nothing was more needed and sought after for thirty centuries among tillers of the soil than a good plough, and what finally supplied it was not necessity alone, but improved brains. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The Sudras, he says, were the tillers of the soil. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Edited by Angus