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definitions

cavel

noun

NZ a drawing of lots among miners for an easy and profitable place at the coalface

Nearby words

  1. cave-in,
  2. caveat,
  3. caveat emptor,
  4. caveator,
  5. cavefish,
  6. cavell,
  7. cavell, edith,
  8. caveman,
  9. cavendish,
  10. cavendish experiment

Word Origin for cavel

C19: from English dialect cavel to cast lots, apportion
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Examples from the Web for cavel

  • Belay: To make a rope fast to a pin or cavel, without hitching or seizing.

    The Sportswoman's Library, v. 2|Various

  • The fore-trysail was bent to some of the mast-hoops, and the sheet fastened to a cavel on the port side.

    At Aboukir and Acre|George Alfred Henty