windlass

• windless (obsolete)

From Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnd.ləs/

windlass (plural windlasses)

1. Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights
2. A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Ham II. i. 65:

     With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.

3. An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.

windlass (third-person singular simple present windlasses, present participle windlassing, simple past and past participle windlassed)

1. To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.

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

2. To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.

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