clove hitch


noun
  1. a knot or hitch for fastening a rope to a spar or larger rope, consisting of two half hitches made in opposite directions, the two parts of the rope emerging also in opposite directions.

Origin of clove hitch

1
First recorded in 1760–70; see origin at clove3
  • Also called builder's knot.

Words Nearby clove hitch

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use clove hitch in a sentence

  • A kind of double clove-hitch is generally used, but the simple one suffices, and is more easily recollected.

    The Art of Travel | Francis Galton
  • Take this silk rope, Gomez, and clove-hitch it well up the trunk.

    Captain Brand of the "Centipede" | H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise
  • In making nets this clove hitch is used to attach the first row of meshes to the top line or head rope, as it is called.

  • A clove hitch is this same knot made around a spar or other article, instead of on its own standing part.

    Practical Boat-Sailing | Douglas Frazar
  • To the middle of this bail Jim tied the thirty-foot painter with a clove hitch.

    Jim Spurling, Fisherman | Albert Walter Tolman

British Dictionary definitions for clove hitch

clove hitch

noun
  1. a knot or hitch used for securing a rope to a spar, post, or larger rope

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