Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A hinged or pivoted device adapted to fit into a notch of a ratchet wheel to impart forward motion or prevent backward motion.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A short iron bar acting as a catch or brake to prevent a windlass or capstan from turning back. See cuts under
capstan and pattern-chain. - noun A bar pivoted to a movable or fixed support at one end, and having its opposite end adapted to fit the teeth of a ratchet-wheel or ratchet-bar, used either for holding the ratchet-wheel or -bar in a position to which it has been moved by other mechanism (as in the case where the pawl is pivoted to a fixed support), or for moving it (as when the pawl is pivoted to a movable support).
- noun Cross pawl, in ship-building.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mach.) A pivoted tongue, or sliding bolt, on one part of a machine, adapted to fall into notches, or interdental spaces, on another part, as a ratchet wheel, in such a manner as to permit motion in one direction and prevent it in the reverse, as in a windlass; a catch, click, or detent. See
Illust. ofratchet wheel . - noun (Naut.) a heavy timber, set abaft the windlass, to receive the strain of the pawls.
- noun (Naut.) a stationary metallic ring surrounding the base of a capstan, having notches for the pawls to catch in.
- transitive verb To stop with a pawl; to drop the pawls off.
- transitive verb See under
Capstan .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A pivoted
catch designed to fall into anotch on aratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction. - verb transitive To stop with a pawl.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a hinged catch that fits into a notch of a ratchet to move a wheel forward or prevent it from moving backward
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The chances of the pawl wearing excessively or shearing off are slim, but the parking brake still helps you avoid the threat of a car rolling away.
When to Use the Parking Brake Jonathan Welsh 2011
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When parking on steep grades, the pawl has to support more of the car's weight as it tries to roll down the hill.
When to Use the Parking Brake Jonathan Welsh 2011
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Some of the reels that come on these combos have poor drags; some are simple pawl drags or offset disc drags.
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His mechanic had removed a pawl or two in an effort to decrease freehub drag, but the results were disastrous.
Ask Nick: Mechanically inclined racers, mystery clicking, ProTour bike washing techniques and more 2010
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A: Using the parking brake can keep the car from resting heavily on the transmission's parking pawl—a mechanism that engages the transmission to keep it from moving, sort of like the latch on a door.
When to Use the Parking Brake Jonathan Welsh 2011
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Some of the reels that come on these combos have poor drags; some are simple pawl drags or offset disc drags.
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Now I realize the Sage is a click-pawl reel and as such doesn't have a drag but I've looked at a lot of drag-equipped reels in the $150 to $300 range and I have to admit I just can't see why they cost so much.
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One of the pawls is sticking, broken, or somehow compromised, or the body is flexing so that one pawl misses its first grab.
Technical FAQ with Lennard Zinn: Keeping cyclocross brakes centered, pulling that PT crank 2010
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June 16, 2009 at 12:17 am ai nawt overlee fond ob baseball but is a good excewse tew sit owtside fur a few ours. ai likes minor leege, owr teem is teh saint pawl saints an tehy always has sumfin goin on. when visitin teem pitcher is retired, hole crowd yells “left right left right” at him all teh way to teh dugouwt. pitchers in teh know swich tehr feets kwikk.
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The pawl from the freehub broke through the freehub shell causing the wheel to instantly become a "Fixed" wheel.
A Shot in the Dark: The Art of Appropriating Blame BikeSnobNYC 2009
yarb commented on the word pawl
...he gradually came to taking the command; ordering us when to heave and when to pawl...
- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 14
September 6, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word pawl
"... a piece of iron, about two feet in length and four inches square at its largest end, the other end is furnished with a hole, and bolted through the partners of the capstan; in this position it traverses round the bolt, and pawls the capstan, which it prevents from turning back, when it is employed to heave in the cable or hawsers; thus, they say, 'Heave a pawl!" that is, heave a little more for the pawls to get hold of the welps."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 335
October 11, 2008
qms commented on the word pawl
"Your ceaseless search finishes here,"
Declared the lovestruck engineer.
"I will be your all,
Your passion’s pawl;
My thrusts will brake your spinning gear."
March 3, 2015