gavel

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

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

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.

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.

Origin obscure. Perhaps alteration of cavel (“a stone mason's hammer”). More at cavel. Has also been linked to an Old Norse origin.

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:

     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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

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.

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

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

gavel (plural gavels)

1. A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

gavel (plural gavels)

1. (Scotland, architecture) A gable.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

• glave

gavel c

1. a gable, a short wall of a building

• husgavel