Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of windlass.

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

  • noun Plural form of windle.
  • noun A winch, a windlass.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See windle

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

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Examples

  • After this she took a pair of yarn windles, which she nine times unintermittedly veered and frisked about; then at the ninth revolution or turn, without touching them any more, maturely perpending the manner of their motion, she very demurely waited on their repose and cessation from any further stirring.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • After this she took a pair of yarn windles, which she nine times unintermittedly veered and frisked about; then at the ninth revolution or turn, without touching them any more, maturely perpending the manner of their motion, she very demurely waited on their repose and cessation from any further stirring.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • So the swans on the banks of the Hebrus, tiotiotiotiotiotinx, mingle their voices to serenade Apollo, tiotiotiotinx, flapping their wings the while, tiotiotiotinx; their notes reach beyond the clouds of heaven; they startle the various tribes of the beasts; a windles sky calms the waves, totototototototototinx; all Olympus resounds, and astonishment seizes its rulers; the Olympian graces and Muses cry aloud the strain, tiotiotiotinx.

    The Birds 2000

  • Rodregross was very angry with me and Commanded me to hoyse it againe, which I Refused to doe; and there upon I went forward and Laye before the windles tell the vessell was taken; And when the Capt. yeelded, I Edward Youringe Lett fall the Anchor; I being very glad that I was freed from the Bondage and Slavery I was in untell the vessell was taken by Capt.

    Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Illustrative Documents 1898

  • In a large chamber, where already a hundred windles were turning, loaded with flax, girls and youths, with nimble fingers, were winding thread as fine as hair.

    Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre Louisa Stuart Costello 1834

  • After this she took a pair of yarn windles, which she nine times unintermittedly veered and frisked about; then at the ninth revolution or turn, without touching them any more, maturely perpending the manner of their motion, she very demurely waited on their repose and cessation from any further stirring.

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

  • In 1730 there were lying at Liverpool 33,000 windles (a windle -- 220 lb.) of imported corn, unsaleable owing to the great crop in England. [

    A Short History of English Agriculture 1893

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