anchor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Nautical A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable or rope and cast overboard to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.
2. n. A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.
3. n. A source of security or stability.
4. n. Sports An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.
5. n. Sports The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.
6. n. An anchorperson.
7. v. To hold fast by or as if by an anchor. See Synonyms at fasten.
8. v. Sports To serve as an anchor for (a team or competition).
9. v. To narrate or coordinate (a newscast).
10. v. To provide or form an anchor store for: Two major stores anchor each end of the shopping mall.
11. v. Nautical To drop anchor or lie at anchor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A device for securing a vessel to the ground under water by means of a cable. Anchors are generally made of iron, and consist of a strong shank a, at one extremity of which is the crown c, from which branch out two arms b b, curved inward, and each terminating in a broad palm or fluke d d, the sharp extremity of which is the peak or bill. At the other end of the shank is the stock e e, a transverse piece, behind which is a shackle or ring, to which a cable may be attached. The principal use of the stock, which in nearly all anchors is now made of iron and is placed at right angles to the curved arms b b, is to cause the arms to fall so that one of the flukes shall enter the ground. According to their various forms and uses, anchors are called star-board-bower, port-bower, sheet, spare, stream, kedge, and grapnel or boat anchors. Those carried by men-of-war are the starboard- and port-bowers, on the starboard and port bows respectively; the sheet, on either side of the ship further aft; and the spare anchor, which is usually in the hold. These are all of equal or nearly equal size and weight. To these are added for various purposes the stream and kedge anchors, which are smaller and of various sizes. Many improvements and novelties in the shape and construction of anchors have been introduced in recent times. The principal names connected with these alterations are those of Lieut. Rodgers, who introduced the hollow-shanked anchor, with the view of increasing the strength without adding to the weight; Mr. Porter, who made the arms and flukes movable by pivoting them to the shank instead of fixing them immovably, causing the anchor to take a readier and firmer hold, and avoiding the danger of fouling the cable; Mr. Trotman, who has further improved Porter's invention; and M. Martin, whose anchor is of very peculiar form, and is constructed so as to be self-canting, the arms revolving through an angle of 30° either way, and the sharp points of the flukes being always ready to enter the ground. Of the many other forms, all (except Tyzack's anchor, which has only one arm, pivoted on a bifurcation of the shank and arranged to swing between the two parts) are more or less closely related to the forms illustrated. The anchor is said to be a-cockbill when it is suspended vertically from the cathead ready to be let go; apeak when the cable is drawn in so tight as to bring it directly under the ship; atrip or aweigh when it is just drawn out of the ground in a perpendicular direction; and awash when the stock is hove up to the surface of the water.
2. n. Any similar device for holding fast or checking the motion of a movable object.
3. n. Specifically — The apparatus at the opposite end of the field from the engine of a steam-plow, to which pulleys are fixed, round which the endless band or rope that moves the plow passes.
4. n. The device by which the extremities of the chains or wire ropes of a suspension-bridge are secured. See anchorage.
5. n. Figuratively, that which gives stability or security; that on which dependence is placed.
6. n. In architecture: A name for the arrow-head or tongue ornament used especially in the so-called egg-and-dart molding.
7. n. A metallic clamp, sometimes of fanciful design, fastened on the outside of a wall to the end of a tie-rod or strap connecting it with an opposite wall to prevent bulging.
8. n. In zoology: Some appendage or arrangement of parts by which a parasite fastens itself upon its host.
9. n. Something shaped like an anchor; an ancora. See ancora.
10. n. An iron plate placed in the back part of a coke-oven before it is charged with coal. See anchor-oven.
11. To fix or secure in a particular place by means of an anchor; place at anchor: as, to anchor a ship.
12. Figuratively, to fix or fasten; affix firmly.
13. To cast anchor; come to anchor; lie or ride at anchor: as, the ship anchored outside the bar.
14. Figuratively, to keep hold or be firmly fixed in any way.
15. n. An anchoret; a hermit.
16. n. Erroneous spelling of anker.
17. n. In the tug of war, the man at the end of the line, who is supposed to hold while the rest endeavor to pull.
18. n. Same as chapelet, 4.

Wiktionary

1. n. A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement.
2. n. Generic term to refer to the combined anchoring gear (anchor, rode, and fittings such as bitts, cat, and windlass.)
3. n. A fixed point, especially materials or tools used to affix something at that point.
4. n. An HTML/XHTML mark-up tag to define a position in a file, or a link to a URL.
5. n. An anchorman or anchorwoman.
6. v. To hold an object, especially a ship or a boat to a fixed point.
7. v. To provide emotional stability for a person in distress.
8. v. To perform as an anchorman.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.
2. n. Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.
3. n. Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety.
4. n. An emblem of hope.
5. n. A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.
6. n. Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; -- a part of the ornaments of certain moldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.
7. n. One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta.
8. n. an achorman, anchorwoman, or anchorperson.
9. v. To place at anchor; to secure by an anchor.
10. v. To fix or fasten; to fix in a stable condition.
11. v. To cast anchor; to come to anchor.
12. v. To stop; to fix or rest.
13. n. An anchoret.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a central cohesive source of support and stability
2. n. a television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute
3. v. fix firmly and stably
4. v. secure a vessel with an anchor
5. n. a mechanical device that prevents a vessel from moving