different between windlass vs laborer

English

Alternative forms

• windless (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English wyndlas, wyndelas, wyndlasse, wyndelasse, probably an alteration (due to Middle English windel) of Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?nd.l?s/

Homophone: windless

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.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Ham II. i. 65:

     With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.

3. An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.

Translations

Verb

windlass (third-person singular simple present windlasses, present participle windlassing, simple past and past participle windlassed)

1. To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
   • 1882, Constance Gordon-Cumming, "Ningpo and the Buddhist Temples", in The Century Magazine

     A favoring breeze enabled us to sail all the way down the lake, and (having been windlassed across the haul-over) even down the canals.

2. To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
   • a. 1660, Henry Hammond, a sermon

     He could not expect to allure him forward, and therefore drives him as far back as he can; that so he may be the more sure of him at the rebound; as a skilful woodsman, that by windlassing presently gets a shoot, which, without taking a compass and thereby a commodious stand, he could never have obtained.

English

Alternative forms

• labourer

Etymology

labor +? -er

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?le?.b?.?/

Noun

laborer (plural laborers)

1. (American spelling) One who uses body strength instead of intellectual power to earn a wage, usually hourly.

Related terms

• laborist

Translations

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lab?r?re, present active infinitive of lab?r?.

Verb

laborer

1. to work; to labor

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. This verb has a stressed present stem labeur distinct from the unstressed stem labor. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

Related terms

• labour

Descendants

• Middle French: labourer
  • French: labourer
• Norman: labouother
• ? Middle English: labouren
  • English: labour, labor
  • Scots: laubour