gasket

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of a wide variety of seals or packings used between matched machine parts or around pipe joints to prevent the escape of a gas or fluid.
2. n. Nautical A cord or canvas strap used to secure a furled sail to a yard boom or gaff.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Nautical, one of several bands of sennit or canvas, or small lines, used to bind the sails to the yards, gaffs, or masts when furled. Also called casket.
2. n. In machinery, a strip of leather, tow, plaited hemp, or similar material, used for packing a piston, as of the steam-engine and its pumps.
3. To fasten with gaskets, as a sail to a yard.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any mechanical seal that serves to fill the space between two objects, generally to prevent leakage between the two objects while under compression.
2. n. A material which may be clamped between faces and acts as a static seal. Gaskets may be cut, formed, or molded to the desired configuration. - ASTM
3. n. Any of a wide variety of seals or packings used between matched machine parts or around pipe joints to prevent the escape of a gas or fluid. - American Heritage Dictionary

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Naut.) A line or band used to lash a furled sail securely. Sea gaskets are common lines; harbor gaskets are plaited and decorated lines or bands. Called also casket.
2. n. The plaited hemp used for packing a piston, as of the steam engine and its pumps.
3. n. Any ring or washer of made of a compressible material, used to make joints impermeable to fluids.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. seal consisting of a ring for packing pistons or sealing a pipe joint