cordelle

American  

[kawr-del] / kɔrˈdɛl /

noun

1. a heavy rope formerly used for towing boats on rivers in Canada and the U.S.

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verb (used with object)

cordelled, cordelling

1. to tow (a boat) by means of a cordelle.

Etymology

Origin of cordelle

1785–95; < French, diminutive of corde cord

Example Sentences

With only now and then the cordelle, and still more rarely the oars, they moved all day across the lands and waters that were once the fastnesses of the Baratarian pirates.

From Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana by Cable, George Washington

The current was now very swift, and we were obliged to cordelle the boat along the left shore, where the bank was covered with large masses of rocks.

From The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources by Frémont, John Charles

In return they shipped molasses, sugar, coffee, lead, and hides upon the few keel boats which crept upstream or the blundering barges which were propelled northward by means of oar, sail, and cordelle.

From The Paths of Inland Commerce; a chronicle of trail, road, and waterway by Hulbert, Archer Butler

They won up over the sullen rapids of the river which came into the bay, toiling sometimes waist-deep at the cordelle, yet complaining not at all.

From The Mississippi Bubble by Hough, Emerson

With much ado, with poles and cordelle, we made but five miles.

From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe