gaffle

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A lever used to bend a crossbow.

2. 2

   A steel spur attached to a gamecock (sometimes used figuratively).

   • One sits with a harp at his lord's feet; another tames the wild hawk and trains him, teaches him with his little gaffles till the Welsh bird becomes docile.
   • Conkling and Me Too Platt, by putting the gaffles into President Garfield, ruptured the Republican party from narrative to neckband, and the Democrats won in a walk.
3. 3

   A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that…

   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. ›+ 9 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      a fork in an orienteering race.

   2. 5

      To equip with a gaffle or similar weapon.

      • He earned my contempt by carrying a pistol and drawing it on Senator Benton (known to be unarmed) in the Chamber, like a gaffled fowl in a cock-pit waiting provocation.
   3. 6

      to include a gaffle in an orienteering race.

   4. 7

      To grab or seize

      • They would grapple till they were tired, then stop; but as soon as one would start for the bears the other would gaffle him again.
      • Just as he was going to throw the plug into the box, Jimmy's huge paw reached out and gaffled it.
      • The nurse kep cool enough, but the menfolks fretted some; and the two ole hairpins gaffled holt of one another and plumped down onto their knees, prayin' for “deliv'rance from desaster !"
   5. 8

      To get hold of, to find.

      • Ye see, he knew there wasn't barely enough grazing for him on that oasis, and a short supply of dates for me, and he had gaffled onto that place and warn't going to let go for no black feller nor yet yeller.
      • "Clever of ye," said Scattergood. "Naow, about Marjie's money. How'd ye manage to gaffle onto that?"
      • "I gaffled onto Kate,” Mrs. Swain said. "Oh, wonderful! How ever did you find her ?”
   6. 9

      To arrest for criminal activity.

      • Most forgers were “drunken checkers," men who had forged checks at taverns, although now and then someone would arrive who had hung a great deal of paper before getting gaffled.
      • They come on down, man, gaffled me up and put the cuffs on my hands.
   7. 10

      To steal

      • I presume that one of them walked out to the back end to see if any one had been trespassing, and finding my trap had gaffled it.
      • “That hooligan gaffled my wallet,” Seth told Mort, his breathing now back to near normal.
   8. 11

      To swindle or bully (someone)

      • In other words , you know the trouble around here — and this is pertinent , too — that there have been too many committees in which the minority has allowed itself to be gaffled into submission and silence.
      • They then stole a maroon Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight from a parking lot on Harvard Avenue and resumed their search for a victim to “gaffle."
      • SHEILA: I'm late — 'cause I just got gaffled G ROC (Overlapping): Got gaffled?! Whatchu mean you got gaffled?!
   9. 12

      To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics

      To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.

      • So I commenced to yell, And old man Pease he hugged his knees and gaffled to his pail.
      • The honey birds gaffle – I'm coming to you soon, I'm coming to you as they leave , and one insect starts to call, and will call all night, with the exact monotonous cheep-cheep of young English house-sparrows in June.
      • Leaving that to the rappers, it's their business But to be down or not to be down Is still debatable for plausible reasons For one seldom knows the directions others are traveling in Or if one-time wants to do some gaffling

The neighborhood

• neighborgiffle-gaffle