Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A rope sling for rolling cylindrical objects up or down an inclined plane.
  • noun A sling for raising or lowering an object vertically.
  • transitive verb To raise or lower with such a sling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A device for raising or lowering a heavy body, as a cask, gun, etc., along an inclined plane or vertical surface.
  • To hoist or lower by means of a parbuckle.

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

  • noun A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is made fast aloft, and both parts are looped around the object, which rests in the loops, and rolls in them as the ends are hauled up or payed out.
  • noun A double sling made of a single rope, for slinging a cask, gun, etc.
  • transitive verb To hoist or lower by means of a parbuckle.

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

  • noun A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is made fast aloft, and both parts are looped around the object, which rests in the loops, and rolls in them as the ends are hauled up or payed out.
  • noun A double sling made of a single rope, for slinging a cask, gun, etc.
  • verb To hoist or lower by means of a parbuckle

Etymologies

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

[Alteration (influenced by buckle) of parbunkel.]

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Examples

  • After refitting, we went for a cruise to the East Indies, where we found the new admiral who had come out to replace Admiral Hope; and, in the spring of the following year, having served for eighteen months as a naval cadet, I was promoted to the rank of midshipman, the captain and first lieutenant, having convinced themselves of my competency by asking me how I would manage to get a six-pounder to the top of a perpendicular hill, my answer to which question was that I would head it up in a cask and "parbuckle" it up.

    Crown and Anchor Under the Pen'ant John B. [Illustrator] Greene

  • "parbuckle" on board her spars lying alongside her in the stream, fit her rigging, bend her sails, stow her hold, and present her all a-taunt-o to the men who were to sail her.

    From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life 1877

  • When the tree was cut off he hauled it to the surface with a long parbuckle chain to which Babe, mounted on snowshoes, was hitched.

    The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan W.B. Laughead

  • They'd left some gear behind them, but we were most of two days cutting and heaving the beast out with a parbuckle under him.

    Hawtrey's Deputy Harold Bindloss 1905

  • They'd left some gear behind them, but we were most of two days cutting and heaving the beast out with a parbuckle under him.

    Masters of the Wheat-Lands Harold Bindloss 1905

  • Then, having got the first gun on deck -- already prepared in Port Royal dockyard, by being encased in a stout cylindrical packing of planks -- we passed the bights of our two hawsers round it, one at each end, and with all hands tailing on -- except one, whom we set to watch as a sentinel -- proceeded to parbuckle it up the face of the cliff.

    A Middy of the King A Romance of the Old British Navy Harry Collingwood 1886

  • This gave me a good deal of trouble, for I wanted the spar on deck, not overboard; so I had to go to work to parbuckle it up the side, which I managed pretty well by watching the lift of the seas.

    A Pirate of the Caribbees Harry Collingwood 1886

  • This formed a parbuckle, and when the men hauled upon the upper lengths of the ropes the cask easily rolled up to the ends of the lower lengths.

    By Conduct and Courage A Story of the Days of Nelson 1867

  • "We must pass straps round this, and parbuckle him up," he observed.

    Adrift in a Boat William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • 'I've been looking at your men handling that gun, and my opinion is, that if you gets a butt, crams in a carronade, well woulded up, and fill it with old junk and rope yarns, you might parbuckle it up to the very top.'

    Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 Frederick Marryat 1820

Comments

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  • "Parbuckle, is a contrivance to haul up, or lower down a cask, &c. where there is no crane or tackle.

    "It is formed by passing the middle of a rope round a post or ring, or under a boat's thwart; the two parts of the rope are then passed under the two quarters of the cask, bringing the two ends back again over it, which being both hauled or slackened together, either raise or lower the barrel, &c. as may be required."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 333

    October 14, 2008