anchor

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

• n. Nautical A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable or rope and cast overboard to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.
• n. A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.
• n. A source of security or stability.
• n. Sports An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.
• n. Sports The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.
• n. An anchorperson.
• transitive v. To hold fast by or as if by an anchor. See Synonyms at fasten.
• transitive v. Sports To serve as an anchor for (a team or competition).
• transitive v. To narrate or coordinate (a newscast).
• transitive v. To provide or form an anchor store for: Two major stores anchor each end of the shopping mall.
• intransitive v. Nautical To drop anchor or lie at anchor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• n. A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement.
• n. Generic term to refer to the combined anchoring gear (anchor, rode, and fittings such as bitts, cat, and windlass.)
• n. A fixed point, especially materials or tools used to affix something at that point.
• n. A marked point in a document that can be the target of a hyperlink.
• n. An anchorman or anchorwoman.
• n. The final runner in a relay race.
• v. To hold an object, especially a ship or a boat to a fixed point.
• v. To provide emotional stability for a person in distress.
• v. To perform as an anchorman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• n. A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.
• n. Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.
• n. Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety.
• n. An emblem of hope.
• n.
• n. A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.
• n. Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; -- a part of the ornaments of certain moldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.
• n. One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta.
• n. an achorman, anchorwoman, or anchorperson.
• n. An anchoret.
• intransitive v. To cast anchor; to come to anchor.
• intransitive v. To stop; to fix or rest.
• transitive v. To place at anchor; to secure by an anchor.
• transitive v. To fix or fasten; to fix in a stable condition.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• To fix or secure in a particular place by means of an anchor; place at anchor: as, to anchor a ship.
• Figuratively, to fix or fasten; affix firmly.
• To cast anchor; come to anchor; lie or ride at anchor: as, the ship anchored outside the bar.
• Figuratively, to keep hold or be firmly fixed in any way.
• n. A device for securing a vessel to the ground under water by means of a cable.
• n. Any similar device for holding fast or checking the motion of a movable object.
• n. Specifically — The apparatus at the opposite end of the field from the engine of a steam-plow, to which pulleys are fixed, round which the endless band or rope that moves the plow passes.
• n. The device by which the extremities of the chains or wire ropes of a suspension-bridge are secured. See anchorage.
• n. Figuratively, that which gives stability or security; that on which dependence is placed.
• n. In architecture: A name for the arrow-head or tongue ornament used especially in the so-called egg-and-dart molding.
• n. A metallic clamp, sometimes of fanciful design, fastened on the outside of a wall to the end of a tie-rod or strap connecting it with an opposite wall to prevent bulging.
• n. In zoology: Some appendage or arrangement of parts by which a parasite fastens itself upon its host.
• n. Something shaped like an anchor; an ancora. See ancora.
• n. An iron plate placed in the back part of a coke-oven before it is charged with coal. See anchor-oven.
• n. An anchoret; a hermit.
• n. Erroneous spelling of anker.
• n. In the tug of war, the man at the end of the line, who is supposed to hold while the rest endeavor to pull.
• n. Same as chapelet, 4.

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

• n. a central cohesive source of support and stability
• n. a television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute
• v. fix firmly and stably
• v. secure a vessel with an anchor
• n. a mechanical device that prevents a vessel from moving