whippletree

English

Alternative forms

Noun

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
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.