Wiktionary

gavel

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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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; also called gavelkind.

Verb

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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.

Etymology 2

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Origin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).

Noun

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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[1]:
      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.[1]
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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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.
Usage notes
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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

Noun

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gavel (plural gavels)

  1. A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
    • 1857, United States Patent Office, Commissioner of Patents Annual Report:
      The combination with a mechanical rake of the roof or screen herein described, or the equivalent thereof, to intervene and keep the gavel of grain collected on the platform separated during its discharge
Translations
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Etymology 4

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Noun

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gavel (plural gavels)

  1. (Scotland, archaic, architecture) A gable.

References

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  1. ^ Edward H[enry] Knight (1877) “Gavel”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton […], →OCLC.

Anagrams

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Swedish

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Noun

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gavel c

  1. (architecture) a gable, a short wall of a building
  2. (idiomatic, in "stå på vid gavel") to be wide open (of a door or the like)
    Synonym: (adjective) vidöppen
    Dörren stod på vid gavel
    The door was wide open

Declension

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Declension of gavel
nominative genitive
singular indefinite gavel gavels
definite gaveln gavelns
plural indefinite gavlar gavlars
definite gavlarna gavlarnas
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References

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