whippletree

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English

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Alternative forms

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Noun

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whippletree (plural whippletrees)

  1. a wooden crossbar for a plough or carriage, pivoted in the middle, from which traces are fastened to a draught animal.
    • 1889, George E. Blakelee, Blakelee's Industrial Cyclopedia, page 364:
      The single whippletree should have a chain attached to bring it out even with the other two.
    • 1964, Albert C. Leighton, Early Medieval Transport, page 128:
      Like the whippletree, the wheelbarrow only became known in the Middle Ages.
    • 2016, Steven Vogel, Why the Wheel Is Round: Muscles, Technology, and How We Make Things Move, →ISBN:
      Note the two-horse whippletree on the beam at the lower left. (A whippletree, of which this is the simplest possible, balances the load on the animals.)

Synonyms

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