(n.) A ratchet wheel, or notched bar, with which a pawl or click works.
Example Sentences:
(1) The only thing Michael Fabricant could reasonably be vice-chairman of is the steering committee of Nurse Ratched 's ward fete.
(2) At which point Nurse Ratched [Bailey named her after the character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ] runs along the corridor and is over my mother going: 'Bella you weren't dropped, were you?
Windlass
Definition:
(n.) A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course; a shift.
(v. i.) To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
(n.) A machine for raising weights, consisting of a horizontal cylinder or roller moving on its axis, and turned by a crank, lever, or similar means, so as to wind up a rope or chain attached to the weight. In vessels the windlass is often used instead of the capstan for raising the anchor. It is usually set upon the forecastle, and is worked by hand or steam.
(n.) An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.
(v. t. & i.) To raise with, or as with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
Example Sentences:
(1) By coincidence, both injuries were caused when the patients' clothing was caught in the revolving cylinder of a windlass on a ship.