whiffletree

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (5)  · 
“
"It's the whiffletree, I think," she said, as if she were used to wagons.

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Northeastern U.S. The pivoted horizontal crossbar to which the harness traces of a draft animal are attached and which is in turn attached to a vehicle or an implement. Also called singletree, swingletree; also called regionally whippletree.
  2. Regional Note
    Whiffletree, a term primarily used in the northeast United States, is derived from the older term whippletree, which is used in the Upper Northern states farther to the west. The fact that whiffletree, the newer term, is used in the Northeast, the older dialect area, illustrates the process of linguistic change. Even as the older word whippletree was spreading westward into a new dialect area, it was evolving into something different—whiffletree—in the area where it originated, as if the older dialect area were somehow trying to keep a step ahead.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (22)

  • The last stand of three troopers and a scout overtaken by a band of hostile Indians Ere's 'Ell to Pay My Curse Is on Her Who Next Kisses You A DEAL IN WHEAT I. THE BEAR--WHEAT AT SIXTY-TWO As Sam Lewiston backed the horse into the shafts of his backboard and began hitching the tugs to the whiffletree, his wife came out from the kitchen door of the house and drew near, and stood for some time at the horse's head, her arms folded and her apron rolled around them. —  A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the New and Old West
  • But before he could attach it to his place on the whiffletree again, Ranald stood ready for work. —  The Man from Glengarry; a tale of the Ottawa
  • "It's the whiffletree, I think," she said, as if she were used to wagons. —  The La Chance Mine Mystery
  • The pole was snapped, and the whiffletree smashed, so that the traces were useless. —  The La Chance Mine Mystery
  • I did some fair jury work with a lucky bit of spruce wood, the whiffletree, and the axle, and got the pole spliced. —  The La Chance Mine Mystery
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 26 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Variant of whippletree.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from whiffle, turn, + tree. Cf. whippletree, swingletree.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈhwɪfltri/
by American Heritage

Charts

We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.

Recently looked up

meretricious · farsightedness · technobabble · congregational · atypical

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich