pawl

A hinged or pivoted device adapted to fit into a notch of a ratchet wheel to impart forward motion or prevent backward motion.

A short iron bar acting as a catch or brake to prevent a windlass or capstan from turning back. See cuts under capstan and pattern-chain.

A bar pivoted to a movable or fixed support at one end, and having its opposite end adapted to fit the teeth of a ratchet-wheel or ratchet-bar, used either for holding the ratchet-wheel or -bar in a position to which it has been moved by other mechanism (as in the case where the pawl is pivoted to a fixed support), or for moving it (as when the pawl is pivoted to a movable support).

Cross pawl, in ship-building.

A pivoted tongue, or sliding bolt, on one part of a machine, adapted to fall into notches, or interdental spaces, on another part, as a ratchet wheel, in such a manner as to permit motion in one direction and prevent it in the reverse, as in a windlass; a catch, click, or detent. See Illust. of ratchet wheel.

a heavy timber, set abaft the windlass, to receive the strain of the pawls.

a stationary metallic ring surrounding the base of a capstan, having notches for the pawls to catch in.

To stop with a pawl; to drop the pawls off.

See under Capstan.