tholes

Noun (1)

thole (plural tholes)

1. A pin in the side of a boat which acts as a fulcrum for the oars.
   • Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie. / After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance, / As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, [...]1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter II, in Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part II, page 101, lines 841–842

   Synonyms:

   oarlock, rowlock, tholepin

2. A pin, or handle, of the snath (shaft) of a scythe.
   • The nature of my invention consists in curving forward that portion of the scythe snath below the right nib or thole, to such an extent as to form an obtuse angle between the scythe and snath at the point where they are joined, and also in such a manner as to equalize the labor between the right...1850 May, “[List of American Patents which issued in November, 1849, with Exemplifications by Charles M. Keller, late Chief Examiner of Patents in the U.S. Patent Office.] 38. For an Improvement in...

   Synonyms:

   nib

Noun (2)

thole (plural tholes)

1. A cupola, a dome, a rotunda; a tholus.
   • Philostratus relates that the king's house in Babylon had a roof of brass, which shone like lightning, and that in that house there was a chamber, whose ceiling was a thole (that is, a concave hemisphere) made in imitation of some system of the heaven, and with sapphire-coloured stones, […] and...1828, [Algernon Herbert], “Ba-bel”, in Nimrod: A Discourse on Certain Passages of History and Fable, volume I, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Richard Priestley, →OCLC, page 206

See all 6 meanings of thole