What does "pawl" mean?

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.

What is a synonym for "pawl"?

Common synonyms include: button, click, detent, dog, fastener, girth.

Pawl

//pɔːl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.
"A pawl is a sort of catch that fits into a ratchet wheel and pushes it around, or it may be used as a catch to prevent the backward motion of a windlass or the wheel on a derrick."
2
Alternative form of paul (“kind of tent”). alt-of, alternative
3
a hinged catch that fits into a notch of a ratchet to move a wheel forward or prevent it from moving backward wordnet
4
A similar device to prevent motion in other mechanisms besides ratchets.

Verb

1
To stop with a pawl. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

button click detent dog fastener girth

Example

More examples

"A pawl is a sort of catch that fits into a ratchet wheel and pushes it around, or it may be used as a catch to prevent the backward motion of a windlass or the wheel on a derrick."

Etymology

17th c., perhaps from Low German or Dutch pal (“catch (mechanism)”), or from either French pal (“stake”) or épaule (“shoulder”).

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