Hatchel

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A comb used to separate flax fibers.

    "One end of the bundle being hatchelled, it is turned round, and the other is treated in the same way; and the process is repeated on finer hatchels."

  2. 2
    a comb for separating flax fibers wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To separate (flax fibers) with a hatchel, or comb. transitive
  2. 2
    comb with a heckle wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
cardcombcurryhackleheckleheckle

Example

More examples

"One end of the bundle being hatchelled, it is turned round, and the other is treated in the same way; and the process is repeated on finer hatchels."

Etymology

From Middle English hechele, of West Germanic origin, related to the root of hook. Compare hackle.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.