pawl

See also: Pawl

English

A ratchet featuring a pawl (2) and ratchet wheel or gear (1) mounted on a base (3)

Etymology 1

17th c., perhaps from Low German or Dutch pal (“catch (mechanism)”), or from either French pal (“stake”) or épaule (“shoulder”).

Alternative forms

• pall

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔːl/

  Rhymes: -ɔːl

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /pɑl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophones: pall, Paul

Noun

pawl (plural pawls)

1. A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.
   • 1910, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and his Motorcycle:

     A pawl is a sort of catch that fits into a ratchet wheel and pushes it around, or it may be used as a catch to prevent the backward motion of a windlass or the wheel on a derrick.

   • 1994, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing:

     The nails in the rim of the wheel went ratcheting over the leather pawl and the wheel slowed and came to a stop and the woman turned to the crowd and smiled.

2. A similar device to prevent motion in other mechanisms besides ratchets.

Hypernyms

• detent

Derived terms

• pawl bitt
• pawl rim

Translations

pawl

• Bulgarian: палец (bg) m (palec), език (bg) m (ezik)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 千斤 (zh) (qiānjīn)

• Dutch: pal (nl)
• Esperanto: kliko
• Finnish: lukituskynsi (fi)
• French: cliquet (fr) m
• German: Sperrklinke f, Klaue (de) f, Klinke (de) f
• Italian: cricchetto (it)
• Japanese: 歯止め (ja) (はどめ, hadome)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pal (no) m

• Polish: zapadka (pl) f
• Russian: соба́чка (ru) f (sobáčka)
• Spanish: matraca (es) f

Verb

pawl (third-person singular simple present pawls, present participle pawling, simple past and past participle pawled)

1. (transitive) To stop with a pawl.

Derived terms

• pawl the capstan

Further reading

• pawl on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Noun

pawl (plural pawls)

1. Alternative form of paul (“kind of tent”).

Anagrams

• Walp, plaw

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• paul — dated

Etymology

Borrowed from English foul, from Middle English foulen, fulen, from Old English fūlian. Doublet of paw.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈpawl/ [ˈpaʊ̯l]
• Rhymes: -awl
• Syllabification: pawl

Noun

pawl (Baybayin spelling ᜉᜏ᜔ᜎ᜔) (sports)

1. foul (offense in sports)

Further reading

• English, Leo James (1987), Tagalog-English dictionary, Manila, Philippines: National Book Store, →ISBN, page 1024
• Panganiban, José Villa (1973), Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles (overall work in Tagalog and English), Quezon City: Manlapaz Publishing Co., page 796