gavel

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
His temporary yielding of the gavel is an urgent necessity for a Democratic Congress elected two years ago on promises of an ethical housecleaning.

View all »
Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun 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. noun A maul used by masons in fitting stones.
  3. transitive verb To bring about or compel by using a gavel: "The chairman . . . tries to gavel the demonstration to an end” (New Yorker).
1 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The record until the blue diamond went under the gavel was $7.9 million for 6.04 carats.
  • While we wait for the tap of the gavel, a quick roll call. —  Macleans.ca
  • Presenting the chamber gavel, the outgoing president thanked Lagneaux for his commitment to the chamber. —  Deridder Daily News Homepage RSS
  • Museum staff is also seeking specific objects such as a period gavel, a 1950s policeman's uniform and, for an unrelated exhibit, a Cayman Turtle Soup can or other objects pertaining to the turtle canning industry. —  Cayman Net News Daily Headlines
  • His temporary yielding of the gavel is an urgent necessity for a Democratic Congress elected two years ago on promises of an ethical housecleaning. —  UrbanGrounds
More examples »
 

Tags

gavel hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 91 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Origin unknown.
  2. Middle English, from Old English gafol; see ghabh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English gavel, from Anglo-Saxon gafol, gafel, tribute, tax, apparently connected with gifan (preterit geaf), give, but prob. adapted from Celtic: cf. Welsh gafael = Cornish gavel, a hold, tenure, = Irish gabhail, a taking, spoil, conquest, = Gaelic gabhail, a taking, booty, conquest, from gabh, take, receive. Cf. gavelkind. The same word appears in Roman languages, French gabelle, etc., later English gabel, q. v. Contr. gale, q. v.
  2. from Old French gavelle, later javelle = Provencal guavella, modern gaviau = Spanish gavilla = Portuguese gavela, a sheaf of corn; referred by Diez and others, prob. erroneously, to an assumed L. form *capella, diminutive of capulus, a handle, from capere, take: see capable.
  3. from Old French *gaveler, javeler; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈgævɛl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

coeval · theoretician · epicene · reorient · lares

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

unicycle hockey · droopy drawers · turducken · cuddlefish · cuttlefish