Gambrel
/ˈɡæmbɹəl/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The hind leg of a horse; the hock.
- 2 a gable roof with two slopes on each side and the lower slope being steeper wordnet
- 3 A bar, usually metal, with a central loop and a hook at each end, used to hang a carcass for butchering. dialectal, historical, obsolete
"Within two hours the hog - killed, scalded, and scraped of its hair - was hanging pale from a big tree limb by a gambrel stick run through the tendons of its hind feet"
- 4 A kind of meathook shaped roughly like a horse's hind leg.
- 5 A gambrel roof.
Verb
- 1 To truss or hang up using a gambrel.
"They raised him so, gambreled up by the bones in his cheek."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Within two hours the hog - killed, scalded, and scraped of its hair - was hanging pale from a big tree limb by a gambrel stick run through the tendons of its hind feet"
Etymology
Uncertain, perhaps from Old Northern French gamberel, from gambe (“leg”).