Word.ws English Dictionary

gaffles

gaffles is the plural of gaffle.

Meaning of gaffle

Noun

gaffle (plural gaffles)

  1. (obsolete) A lever used to bend a crossbow.
  2. A steel spur attached to a gamecock (sometimes used figuratively).
    • These birds, having been some time previous bereft of the weapons nature designed for their defence, are now fornished with gaffles, or artificial spurs, each of which is a polished steel blade , about three inches in length, half an inch wide at the base, curved slightly upwards, sharp at the...1860, George Palmer Putnam, Popping the Question: And Other Tales, page 295
  3. (historical) A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that it might be accurately aimed and fired.
  4. a fork in an orienteering race.

See all 12 meanings of gaffle

Questions about gaffles

What is gaffles the plural of?
Gaffles is the plural of gaffle.

Words near gaffles in the dictionary

  1. gaffings
  2. gaffkaemia
  3. gaffkemia
  4. gaffle
  5. gaffled
  6. gaffles
  7. gaffling
  8. gaffman
  9. gaffmen
  10. Gaffney
  11. Gaffneys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gaffles (page history and authors); gaffle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gaffles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gaffles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.