gavel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A small mallet used by a presiding officer or an auctioneer to signal for attention or order or to mark the conclusion of a transaction.
2. n. A maul used by masons in fitting stones.
3. v. To bring about or compel by using a gavel: "The chairman . . . tries to gavel the demonstration to an end” ( New Yorker).
4. n. Tribute or rent in ancient and medieval England.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In old English law, rent; tribute; toll; custom; more specifically, rent payable otherwise than in feudal military service.
2. n. The tenure by which, according to either the ancient Saxon or Welsh custom, land on the death of the tenant did not go to the eldest son, but was partitioned in equal shares among all the sons, or among several members of the family in equal degree, or by which, according to the Irish custom, the death of a holder involved a general redistribution of the tribal lands. Compare gavelkind.
3. n. A partition made pursuant to such custom.
4. n. A sheaf of corn before it is tied up; a small heap of unbound wheat or other grain.
5. n. A small mallet used by the presiding officer of a legislative body or public assembly to attract attention and signal for order.
6. To bind into sheaves.
7. n. A dialectal form of gable.
8. To partition and distribute (or redistribute) equally (the lands of one deceased) according to the practice of gavelkind. See gavel , n., and gavelkind.

Wiktionary

1. n. A wooden mallet, used by a judge in a courtroom, or a chairman of a committee, struck against a sounding block to quiet the rabble down.
2. n. figuratively The legal system as a whole.
3. v. To use a gavel.
4. n. historical Rent.
5. n. obsolete Usury; interest on money.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Prov. Eng. A gable.
2. n. A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
3. n. The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc.
4. n. A mason's setting maul.
5. n. (Law) Tribute; toll; custom. [Obs.] See gabel.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a small mallet used by a presiding officer or a judge