gavel

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.vəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæ.vəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gabulą, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give +‎ -el.

Noun

gavel (countable and uncountable, plural gavels)

1. (historical) Rent.
2. (obsolete) Usury; interest on money.
3. (historical) An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.

Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)

1. (transitive) To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.

Etymology 2

Origin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
   • 2019 January 2, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Nancy Pelosi, Icon of Female Power, Will Reclaim Role as Speaker and Seal a Place in History”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     More than three decades later, Ms. Pelosi is all but assured on Thursday of reclaiming her former title as speaker of the House, the first lawmaker in more than half a century to hold the office twice. With the gavel in hand, she will cement her status as the highest-ranking and most powerful elected woman in American political history.

2. (metonymically, chiefly US) The legal system as a whole.
3. A mason's setting maul.

Derived terms

• gavel-to-gavel

Translations

wooden mallet

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: nuija (fi), puheenjohtajan nuija
• French: marteau (fr) m
• Georgian: ხის ჩაქუჩი (xis čakuči), ჩაქუჩი (čakuči)
• German: Hammer (de) m; Richterhammer m (judge); Auktionshammer m (auctioneer)
• Italian: mazzuolo m
• Japanese: 小槌 (kozuchi)
• Romanian: ciocănel (ro) n ciocan (ro) n
• Russian: деревя́нный (ru) (derevjánnyj) молоток (ru) m (molotok) (судьи (ru) (sudʹi) or председателя (ru) (predsedatelja)))
• Spanish: mazo (es) m, martillo (es) m
• Sranan Tongo: amra
• Swedish: klubba (sv) c, ordförandeklubba c
• Turkish: tokmak (tr), hâkim tokmağı, yargıç tokmağı
• Yiddish: העמערל n (hemerl)

Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)

1. To use a gavel.

   The judge gavelled for order in the courtroom after the defendant burst out with a confession.

Usage notes

• In US English, the participles are gaveled and gaveling; in British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English they are gavelled and gavelling.

Derived terms

• gavel out
• gavel to order

Translations

to use a gavel

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: nuijia (fi)
• Georgian: ჩაქუჩის დარტყმა (čakučis darṭq̇ma)
• Romanian: ciocăni (ro), lovi cu ciocanul
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: dar mazazos, dar martillazos

Etymology 3

Old French gavelle (cf. Modern French javelle) probably diminutive from Latin capulus (“handle”), from capere (“to lay hold of, seize”); or compare Welsh gafael (“hold, grasp”). Compare heave.

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
   • 1857, United States Patent Office, Commissioner of Patents Annual Report:

     The combination with a mechanical rake of the roof or screen herein described, or the equivalent thereof, to intervene and keep the gavel of grain collected on the platform separated during its discharge

Translations

heap of grain

• Galician: gavela f, pabea f

Etymology 4

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. (Scotland, archaic, architecture) A gable.

Anagrams

• glave

Swedish

Noun

gavel c

1. (architecture) a gable, a short wall of a building
2. (idiomatic, in "stå på vid gavel") to be wide open (of a door or the like)

   Synonym: (adjective) vidöppen

   Dörren stod på vid gavel

   The door was wide open

Declension

Declension of gavel
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	gavel	gaveln	gavlar	gavlarna
Genitive	gavels	gavelns	gavlars	gavlarnas

Related terms

• husgavel

References

• gavel in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• gavel in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gavel in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)