Definition
nounOne of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance).
nounAnnular ligament of the finger.
Sentence Examples
The screw, the lever, the wedge, the pulley, etc. are called simple machines.
Ziri asked Yazid if he could borrow his pulley.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Medieval Latin polidia, plural mistaken for the feminine of neuter polidium, from Ancient Greek πολίδιον (polídion, “little pivot”), diminutive of πόλος (pólos, “pivot, hinge, axis”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”). Associated with pull (verb) by folk etymology.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"These pulleys […] placed collaterally."
— 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick:
"Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt."
— 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 20:
"The steel haulage ropes have a breaking strain of 50 tons, and another pair passing around a pulley at the bottom connect the lower ends of the cars and act as tail or balance ropes."
— 1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 515:
"[a mine]is digg'd out with ease, being soft, and is between a white Clay and Chalk at first; but being pulley'd up with the open Air, it receives a crusty kind of hardness"
— 1655, James Howell, “To Capt. Francis Bacon”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC: