kevil

plural kevils

1. ScotlandA lot (object used to determine a question by chance or independently of human choice).

   1887, Transactions of the Buchan Field Club, Volumes 1-2, Buchan Field Club, page 176, "Casting the kevils" was and still is a common mode of deciding a thing.

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   1821 [1802], Walter Scott (transcriber), Fause Foodrage, W. Scott (editor) Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3, 5th edition, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 4, And they cast kevils them amang, / And kevils them between; / And they cast kevils them amang, / Wha suld gae kill the king.

2. nauticalA sturdy belaying pin for the heavier cables of a ship.

   The following new ones will have to be supplied: Two pairs of sheave chocks similar to those now in use on board, and twelve large kevils at least four feet long and of heavy pattern.

   1898, Annual Reports of the War Department, U.S. War Department, page 3184

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   The halliard is belayed on the kevil with figure-of-eight turns (not hitched), and the coil is carried up to the pin-rail, where the 1-inch rope is passed round it, the eye at the end of this rope being finally passed over the pin.

   1935, Walter Henry Johnston, Building a Little Ship