pulley

See also: Pulley

English

A fixed pulley assembly

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Vulgar 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈpʊli/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ˈpɵlɪj/
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈpʉle/, /-lɪ/, /-li/
• Rhymes: -ʊli

Noun

pulley (plural pulleys or (obsolete) pullies)

1. (engineering, countable) One 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).
   • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick:

     These pulleys […] placed collaterally.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 515:

     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.

2. Annular ligament of the finger.

Hypernyms

• hoist
• simple machine

Hyponyms

• polyspast
• block and tackle
• winch

Meronyms

• bearing
• chain
• rigging
• rope
• wheel

Coordinate terms

• crane
• inclined plane
• lever
• screw
• wedge

Derived terms

• micropulley
• motor pulley
• mule pulley
• pulley block
• pulley bone
• pulleyless
• pulleylike
• pulley-plough
• pulley shell
• rubbish pulley
• speed pulley

Descendants

• → Asturian: puli
• ⇒ Irish: puilín

Translations

one of simple machines

• Afrikaans: katrol (af)
• Arabic: مَنْجُور (manjūr)
• Armenian: ճախարակ (hy) (čaxarak)
• Basque: txirrika (eu), polea (eu)
• Bulgarian: макара́ (bg) f (makará), скрипе́ц m (skripéc)
• Catalan: politja (ca) f, corriola (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 滑車 / 滑车 (zh) (huáchē), 滑輪 / 滑轮 (zh) (huálún)

• Czech: kladka (cs) f
• Danish: trisse
• Dutch: katrol (nl) c
• Esperanto: pulio (eo)
• Finnish: väkipyörä (fi), pylpyrä (fi)
• French: poulie (fr) f
• Galician: trócola f, cadeixo (gl) m, roudana f, carradeixo m, rinchadeira f
• Georgian: ჭოჭონაქი (č̣oč̣onaki)
• German: Rolle (de) f, Seilrolle f, Seilscheibe f, Laufrolle f, Flaschenzug (de) m, Riemenscheibe f, Talje (de) f, Riemenrad n
• Greek: τροχαλία (el) f (trochalía)

  Ancient Greek: τροχιλεῖον n (trokhileîon)

• Hebrew: גלגלת (he) (galgelet)
• Hindi: घिरनी (hi) (ghirnī)
• Hungarian: csiga (hu)
• Icelandic: trissa f, talía f
• Indonesian: katrol (id)
• Irish: ulóg f, puilín m
• Italian: carrucola (it) f, puleggia (it) f
• Japanese: 滑車 (ja) (かっしゃ, kassha)
• Khmer: រ៉ក (km) (rɑɑk)
• Korean: 도르래 (doreurae)
• Latin: trochlea f
• Macedonian: ма́кара f (mákara), скри́пец m (skrípec)
• Māori: tauru
• Mon: ရံက်
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: trinse (no) m or f, trisse m or f

• Papiamentu: katròl
• Polish: blok (pl)
• Portuguese: roldana (pt) f, polia (pt) f
• Romanian: scripete (ro) m
• Russian: блок (ru) m (blok), шкив (ru) m (škiv)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: чекрк m

  Latin: čekrk (sh) m

• Slovak: kladka f
• Slovene: škripec (sl) m
• Spanish: polea (es) f, roldana (es) f, garrucha (es) f, trocla f, carrillo (es) m, motón (es) m, monospastos m, carrucha f
• Swedish: trissa (sv)
• Tagalog: tangkalag, kalo (tl)
• Telugu: కప్పీ (te) (kappī), గిలక (te) (gilaka)
• Thai: รอก (th) (rɔ̂ɔk)
• Turkish: makara (tr), kasnak (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: مقره (makara)

• Ukrainian: блок (uk) m (blok)
• Vietnamese: ròng rọc (vi)

Verb

pulley (third-person singular simple present pulleys, present participle pulleying, simple past and past participle pulleyed)

1. (transitive) To raise or lift by means of a pulley.
   • 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:

     [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