Word.ws English Dictionary

windlasses

windlasses is the plural of windlass.

Meaning of windlass

Noun

windlass (plural windlasses)

  1. Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights
  2. A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
    • With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  3. An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.

See all 5 meanings of windlass

Phrases with windlasses

Questions about windlasses

What is windlasses the plural of?
Windlasses is the plural of windlass.

Words near windlasses in the dictionary

  1. windlashed
  2. windlass
  3. windlassed
  4. windlasser
  5. windlassers
  6. windlasses
  7. windlassing
  8. windle
  9. windled
  10. windles
  11. Windlesham

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: windlasses (page history and authors); windlass (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: “windlasses.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/windlasses. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.