gavel.
Rent.
Meaning & usage
Rent.
Usury; interest on money.
An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give + -el.
To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give + -el.
A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
The beginning or end of legal proceedings.
The legal system as a whole.
A mason's setting maul.
Where this word comes from
Origin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).
To use a gavel.
To begin or end legal proceedings
The judge gavelled for order in the courtroom after the defendant burst out with a confession.
Where this word comes from
Origin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).
A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
Where this word comes from
From Old French gavelle (cf. Modern French javelle) probably diminutive from Latin capulus (“handle”), from capere (“to lay hold of, seize”); or compare Welsh gafael (“hold, grasp”). Compare heave.
A gable.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.