Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A form of treenail.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Shipbuilding) Same as treenail.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of treenail.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a wooden peg that is used to fasten timbers in shipbuilding; water causes the peg to swell and hold the timbers fast

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The large-bore spiral auger still denoted a mortise, tenon, and trenail mode of building in a wood-based technology; at the same time its near cousin, the wheelwright's reamer, suggested the reliance upon a transport dependent upon wooden hubs.

    Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh

  • The masons immediately thereafter proceeded to bore the trenail-holes into the course below, and otherwise to complete the one in hand.

    Records of a Family of Engineers 1912

  • On the outside, 14 inches down on either side, holes of 2 inches diameter were found intersecting the central hole, apparently for the insertion of a wooden key or trenail to retain the struts.

    The Clyde Mystery a Study in Forgeries and Folklore Andrew Lang 1878

  • The masons immediately thereafter proceeded to bore the trenail-holes into the course below, and otherwise to complete the one in hand.

    Records of a Family of Engineers Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • The artificers landed at six a.m.; but, as no materials could be got upon the rock this morning, they were employed in boring trenail holes and in various other operations, and after four hours 'work they returned on board the tender.

    Records of a Family of Engineers Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • The carpenter and his men were meanwhile hard at work at the copper sheathing, making such progress that they were busy with their saws, dividing plank and trenail and working their way round the hole by the time the tide had risen sufficiently to drive them back, and then the

    The Ocean Cat's Paw The Story of a Strange Cruise George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Michael Wishart, a mason, stumbled over an uncut trenail and rolled on his back, and the ponderous crane fell upon him.

    The Lighthouse 1859

  • Michael Wishart, a mason, stumbled over an uncut trenail and rolled on his back, and the ponderous crane fell upon him.

    The Lighthouse 1859

  • When his eye fell upon this his vivid imagination at once pictured it as in operation in a mill erected upon a spot which he had already recognised as most suitable for the purpose; and he saw, too, that now they need no longer be dependent upon the old ship-timber, full of bolt and trenail holes, for the timber and planking of their craft, as they would be enabled with the assistance of the saw to provide themselves with all the planking, and, indeed, timber of every description which would be necessary in their work, from the magnificent teak and other trees which grew in such abundance on the island.

    The Missing Merchantman Harry Collingwood 1886

  • Listening below, I could hear the creaking and groaning of her timbers, the pistol – like cracks that told of the starting of a trenail or plank, and the faint, indefinable whispers of our ship’s distress.

    South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917 2006

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