Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A sheaf of corn before it is tied up; a small heap of unbound wheat or other grain.
- noun A small mallet used by the presiding officer of a legislative body or public assembly to attract attention and signal for order.
- To partition and distribute (or redistribute) equally (the lands of one deceased) according to the practice of gavelkind. See
gavel , n., and gavelkind. - noun A dialectal form of
gable . - To bind into sheaves.
- noun In old English law, rent; tribute; toll; custom; more specifically, rent payable otherwise than in feudal military service.
- noun The tenure by which, according to either the ancient Saxon or Welsh custom, land on the death of the tenant did not go to the eldest son, but was partitioned in equal shares among all the sons, or among several members of the family in equal degree, or by which, according to the Irish custom, the death of a holder involved a general redistribution of the tribal lands. Compare
gavelkind . - noun A partition made pursuant to such custom.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
- noun The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc.
- noun A mason's setting maul.
- noun Prov. Eng. A gable.
- noun (Law) Tribute; toll; custom. [Obs.] See
gabel .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical
Rent . - noun obsolete
Usury ;interest on money. - noun A wooden
mallet , used by ajudge in a courtroom, or achairman of a committee, struck against a sounding block to quiet therabble down. - noun figuratively The
legal system as a whole. - verb To use a gavel.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small mallet used by a presiding officer or a judge
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But the notion of a Democratic House without Pelosi wielding the speaker's gavel is not as far-fetched as it might seem.
If the Dems win, will Pelosi still be speaker? Ruth Marcus 2010
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Also — and this undercuts the Feingold point, I suppose — Elana Schor reports for TPM that Pat Roberts, one of the worst Senators ever to hold the intelligence-committee gavel, is also backing Panetta.
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Nowhere will the impact of Tuesday's Republican gains be clearer than in the likely passing of the speaker's gavel from a San Francisco liberal who banned smoking in part of the Capitol to the heavy-smoking conservative son of a Cincinnati bar owner.
A New Era May Be Marked by the Passing of a Gavel Michael M. Phillips 2010
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Nowhere will the impact of Tuesday's Republican gains be clearer than in the likely passing of the speaker's gavel from a San Francisco liberal who banned smoking in part of the Capitol to the heavy-smoking conservative son of a Cincinnati bar owner.
A New Era May Be Marked by the Passing of a Gavel Michael M. Phillips 2010
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Secondly, The particular pleading with those that were offended with this distribution in gavel-kind.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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As the meeting was convened by Cyntie (why he gets the gavel is a mystery and actually it’s his dad’s 24oz. deadblow hammer) we knew that something special was about to happen.
Move Over Canadian Cynic, We Have A New Biggest Fan « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2007
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Unfortunately for Pelosi, she was unable to strong-arm Stupak one last time as she becomes increasingly aware of the fact that her hold on the Speaker’s gavel is loosening by the day.”
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Unfortunately for Pelosi, she was unable to strong-arm Stupak one last time as she becomes increasingly aware of the fact that her hold on the Speaker’s gavel is loosening by the day.
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Holo-gavel is the sort of monstrosity you get when someone unfamiliar with the genre tries to write SF and wants to make sure we KNOW it’s SF.
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On Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi swore in John Boehner as the new Speaker of the House and handed over her gavel saying, "I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here."
Mark C. Miller: 10 Best Topical Jokes of the Week Mark C. Miller 2011
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