pulley

plural pulleys · obsolete plural pullies

1. countableengineeringOne of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance).

   These pulleys […] placed collaterally.

   1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick

   2 more examples

   Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 20

   The steel haulage ropes have a breaking strain of 50 tons, and another pair passing around a pulley at the bottom connect the lower ends of the cars and act as tail or balance ropes.

   1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 515

2. Annular ligament of the finger.

present singular third person pulleys · participle present pulleying · participle past pulleyed · past pulleyed

1. transitiveTo raise or lift by means of a pulley.

   [a mine]is digg'd out with ease, being soft, and is between a white Clay and Chalk at first; but being pulley'd up with the open Air, it receives a crusty kind of hardness

   1655, James Howell, “To Capt. Francis Bacon”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC

1. A surname.
2. A hamlet in Bayston Hill parish, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ4809).