whippletree

English

Alternative forms

• whipple-tree
• whipple tree

Noun

whippletree (plural whippletrees)

1. a wooden crossbar for a plough or carriage, pivoted in the middle, from which traces are fastened to a draught animal.
   • 1889, George E. Blakelee, Blakelee's Industrial Cyclopedia, page 364:

     The single whippletree should have a chain attached to bring it out even with the other two.

   • 1964, Albert C. Leighton, Early Medieval Transport, page 128:

     Like the whippletree, the wheelbarrow only became known in the Middle Ages.

   • 2016, Steven Vogel, Why the Wheel Is Round: Muscles, Technology, and How We Make Things Move, →ISBN:

     Note the two-horse whippletree on the beam at the lower left. (A whippletree, of which this is the simplest possible, balances the load on the animals.)

Synonyms

• splinter bar
• swinglebar
• swingletree
• whiffletree (US)