windlass : Idioms & Phrases
Chinese windlass
- . See
Differential windlass , underDifferential .
Webster 1913
Differential windlass , ∨ Chinese windlass
- a windlass whose barrel has two parts of different diameters. The hoisting rope winds upon one part as it unwinds from the other, and a pulley sustaining the weight to be lifted hangs in the bight of the rope. It is an ancient example of a differential motion.
Webster 1913
Spanish windlass
(Naut.) , a wooden roller, with a rope wound about it, into which a marline spike is thrust to serve as a lever.