dragline

Example Sentences

• "Drainboard had been terrified by a narrow escape from the jumping spider's dragline. He had twisted it twice around her cerci and told her, "Your new name is Supper, for that's what you will be in a few hours. My supper.""
• "De Gier had rowed out to where the yacht was anchored, fished up the anchor with a dragline, ascertained that the anchor cable had been cut."
• "Everything about the Eagle [a hot-air balloon] spoke of professionalism. For extra power it had three sails, comprising 818 square feet of silk, which hung like aprons from its midriff. Its steering was provided by three drag-lines, measuring 3,300 feet in total but of unequal lengths to prevent them tangling. […] Ingeniously, the drag-lines were also to act as ballast, Andrée's theory being that if the balloon lost height a greater length of rope would rest on the ground, thus increasing its buoyancy."
• "A dragline excavator has a large cutting bucket suspended from the end of a boom. The operator first lowers the bucket mouth down where earth is to be removed, then a second cable—the dragline—pulls the bucket across the surface. The weight of the bucket and the pull of the dragline make a blade at the mouth of the bucket dig into the topsoil, filling the bucket as it moves. When the bucket is full, its contents are tipped by lifting and inverting the bucket over a waiting dump truck."
• "Spiders rely on silk "draglines" to become airborne and for subsequent transport. Numerical simulations […] suggest that these draglines are flexible and can become contorted by both stretching and twisting. These flexible, extendible draglines enable the spiders to rise in the air column and follow the flow of air, promoting relatively long-distance travel."
• "The use of a head collar or harness along with a dragline allows easy access to the pet and rapid interruption of the behavior sequence and redirection of the pet to a more appropriate activity such as attention directed toward toys or food puzzles."