cleat

English

Etymology

From Middle English clete, from Old English *clēat, clēot, from Proto-Germanic *klautaz (“firm lump”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelewd-, from *gley- (“to glue, stick together, form into a ball”). Cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball; testicle”) and German Kloß. See also clay and clout.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: klēt, IPA(key): /kliːt/
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

cleat (plural cleats)

  1. A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 35
      [...] the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast, to which the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.
  2. A continuous metal strip, or angled piece, used to secure metal components.
  3. (nautical) A device to quickly affix a line or rope, and from which it is also easy to release.
    Nautical cleat
  4. A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe meant for better traction. (See cleats.)

Translations
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Verb

cleat (third-person singular simple present cleats, present participle cleating, simple past and past participle cleated)

  1. To strengthen with a cleat.
  2. (nautical) To tie off, affix, stopper a line or rope, especially to a cleat.

Anagrams
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