parbuckle

Alternative forms

• parbunkell, parbunkel, parbunkle, parbuncle

Etymology

Earliest forms are parbuncle, parbunkel and parbunkle. Of unknown earlier origin. Influenced by buckle and French boucle (“loop”)

Noun

parbuckle (plural parbuckles)

1. A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is made fast aloft, and both parts are looped around the object, which rests in the loops, and rolls in them as the ends are hauled up or payed out.
2. A double sling made of a single rope, for slinging a cask, gun, etc.

Verb

parbuckle (third-person singular simple present parbuckles, present participle parbuckling, simple past and past participle parbuckled)

1. To hoist or lower by means of a parbuckle

References

• parbuckle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913