Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In lumbering, a log which is so caught or wedged that a jam is formed and held by it.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • One of the foremen of Benbow Camp -- the best ax wielder of the crew -- ran out on the boom to a point near the middle of the frothing stream and began cutting the key-log.

    Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies Alice B. Emerson

  • Moncrossen, Stromberg, Fallon, and one other to search for the key-log.

    The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest 1921

  • I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

    Mrs. Falchion, Complete Gilbert Parker 1897

  • I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

    Mrs. Falchion, Volume 2. Gilbert Parker 1897

  • No wonder that the under boss asked Rose's advice as to the key-log.

    Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

  • Rose had created a small sensation, on one occasion, by pointing out to the under boss the key-log in a jam.

    Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

  • When he's ridin 'a log near the falls at high water, or cuttin' the key-log in a jam, he ain't in no place for blasphemious swearin '; jest a little easy, perlite' damn 'is 'bout all he can resk, if he don't want to git drownded an' hev his ghost walkin 'the river-banks till kingdom come.

    Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

  • Or, if they had inclined toward a jolly and adventurous career, they could have joined one of the various jams or "bungs," stimulated by the thought that any one of them might be a key-log, holding for a time the entire mass in its despotic power.

    Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

  • Moncrossen selected his crew for the drive -- white-water men, whose boast it was that they never had walked a foot from the timber to the mills; bateau men, who laughed in the face of death as they swarmed over a jam; key-log men, who scorned dynamite; bend watchers, whose duty it is to stay awake through the long, warm days and prevent the formation of jams as the drive shoots by -- each selected with an eye to previous experience and physical fitness.

    The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest 1921

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