reeve

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The elected president of a town council in some parts of Canada.
• noun Any of various minor officers of parishes or other local authorities.
• noun A bailiff or steward of a manor in the later medieval period.
• noun A high officer of local administration appointed by the Anglo-Saxon kings.
• transitive verb To pass (a rope or rod) through a hole, ring, pulley, or block.
• transitive verb To fasten by passing through or around.
• transitive verb To pass a rope or rod through (a hole, ring, pulley, or block).
• noun The female ruff, Philomachus pugnax.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To run (a ship) through narrow channels in a shoal or through openings in an ice-pack, after the fashion of a rope through the hole in a block, etc.
• An obsolete variant of reave.
• noun A steward; a prefect; a bailiff; a business agent.
• noun A foreman in a coal-mine.
• noun A bird, the female of the ruff, Machetes pugnax, See Pavoncella, and cut under ruff.
• Nautical, to pass or run through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ring-bolt, cringle, etc., as the end of a rope.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) The female of the ruff.
• transitive verb (Naut.) To pass, as the end of a pope, through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ringbolt, cringle, or the like.
• noun an officer, steward, bailiff, or governor; -- used chiefly in compounds

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb nautical To pass a rope through a hole or opening, especially so as to fasten it.
• noun A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.
• noun historical Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.
• noun Canada The president of a township or municipal district council.
• noun military, historical A proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to wing commander.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb fasten by passing through a hole or around something
• verb pass a rope through
• verb pass through a hole or opening
• noun female ruff