pulley
/ˈpʊli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.92 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance).
Countable
noun
name
A surname.
name
A hamlet in Bayston Hill parish, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ4809).
Example Sentences
- "These pulleys […] placed collaterally."
- "Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt."
- "The steel haulage ropes have a breaking strain of 50 tons, and another pair passing around a pulley at the bottom connect the lower ends of the cars and act as tail or balance ropes."
- "[a mine]is digg'd out with ease, being soft, and is between a white Clay and Chalk at first; but being pulley'd up with the open Air, it receives a crusty kind of hardness"
Etymology
From Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Medieval Latin polidia, plural mistaken for the feminine of neuter polidium, from Ancient Greek πολίδιον (polídion, “little pivot”), diminutive of πόλος (pólos, “pivot, hinge, axis”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”). Associated with pull (verb) by folk etymology.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: puly, poulie, polidia, πολίδιον, *kʷel-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpʊli/
- British English: /ˈpʊli/