kevil
Appearance
See also: Kevil
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit](This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
[edit]kevil (plural kevils)
- (Scotland) A lot (object used to determine a question by chance or independently of human choice).
- 1821 [1802], Walter Scott (transcriber), Fause Foodrage, W. Scott (editor) Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3, 5th edition, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 4,
- And they cast kevils them amang, / And kevils them between; / And they cast kevils them amang, / Wha suld gae kill the king.
- 1887, Transactions of the Buchan Field Club, Volumes 1-2, Buchan Field Club, page 176,
- "Casting the kevils" was and still is a common mode of deciding a thing.
- 1821 [1802], Walter Scott (transcriber), Fause Foodrage, W. Scott (editor) Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3, 5th edition, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 4,
- (nautical) A sturdy belaying pin for the heavier cables of a ship.
- 1898, Annual Reports of the War Department, U.S. War Department, page 3184
- The following new ones will have to be supplied: Two pairs of sheave chocks similar to those now in use on board, and twelve large kevils at least four feet long and of heavy pattern.
- 1935, Walter Henry Johnston, Building a Little Ship:
- The halliard is belayed on the kevil with figure-of-eight turns (not hitched), and the coil is carried up to the pin-rail, where the 1-inch rope is passed round it, the eye at the end of this rope being finally passed over the pin.
- 1898, Annual Reports of the War Department, U.S. War Department, page 3184