parbunkel

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A form of parbuckle — A kind of purchase for hoisting or lowering a cylindrical burden, as a cask. The middle of a long rope is fastened aloft, and both ends of the rope are looped under, then over the cylinder and looped back towards the attachment point. The object rests in the loops, and rolls upward in them as the rope ends are hauled up, or downward when the ends are payed out.

First used 17th centuryScrabble 17
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Meanings

nounparbunkel (plural parbunkels)

plural parbunkels

  1. alternativeAlternative form of parbuckleFirst known use 17th century
    1 more example

    A Parbunkel is two ropes that have at each end a noose or lumpe [loop?] that being crossed, you may set any vessell that hath but one head upon them, bringing but the loopes over the upper end of the caske, fix but the tackle to them, and then the vessell will stand strait in the middest to heave out, or take in without spilling.

    1627, John Smith, A Sea-Grammar: With the Plaine Exposition of Smiths Accidence for young Sea-men, enlarged., page 21, in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles, Together with The True Travels, Adventures and Observations, and A Sea Grammar, volume 2, published 1907

Origin

Of unknown origin.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

parbunkel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parbunkel

MLA

“parbunkel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parbunkel. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “parbunkel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parbunkel.

Source: parbunkel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.