sprag

• As the huge pendulum below the Clock rocks the Chronophage as he steps round the great escapewheel, each backward and forward movement is used by sprag clutches to wind up the drive spring. —  My[confined]Space
• For all that, it's a sheer impossibility that you should guess who put a sprag in the wheel of Hilton's chariot. —  The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley
• _ He is a good sprag memory. —  The Merry Wives of Windsor The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.]
• He is a good sprag memory. —  The Merry Wives of Windsor
• [But the] epitaphs were trim and sprag & patent, & pleased the survivors of Thames Ditton above the old mumpsimus of —  The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb

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