cleat

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: klēt, IPA: /kliːt/, X-SAMPA: /kli:t/
• Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

cleat (plural cleats)

1. A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 35

     [...] 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. (nautical) 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 meant for better traction. (See cleats.)

Translations

device to secure a rope

• Bulgarian: кнехт (bg) (kneht) m
• Finnish: knaapi (fi)
• Portuguese: grampo (pt)
• Russian: утка (ru) (utka) f, крепительная утка (ru) (krepitelnaya utka) f

• Spanish: abrazadera (es) f
• Swedish: knap (sv)

A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe for better traction

• French: crampon (fr) m
• Jèrriais: tatchet m

• Russian: шип (ru) (šip) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hungarian: stopli

• Swedish: dubb n

Verb

cleat (third-person singular simple present cleats, present participle cleating, simple past and past participle cleated)

1. To strengthen with a cleat.
2. (nautical) To tie off, affix, stopper a line or rope, especially to a cleat

Anagrams

• CELTA, eclat, éclat