# gavel
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈɡa.vəl/
* (US) IPA: /ˈɡæ.vəl/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gabulą, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give +‎ -el.

#### Noun

gavel (countable and uncountable, plural gavels)
* (historical) Rent.
* (obsolete) Usury; interest on money.
* (historical) An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.

##### Derived terms

* gaveller

#### Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)
* (transitive) To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.

### Etymology 2

Origin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).

#### Noun

gavel (plural gavels)
* A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
** 2019 January 2, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Nancy Pelosi, Icon of Female Power, Will Reclaim Role as Speaker and Seal a Place in History”, in New York Times‎:More than three decades later, Ms. Pelosi is all but assured on Thursday of reclaiming her former title as speaker of the House, the first lawmaker in more than half a century to hold the office twice. With the gavel in hand, she will cement her status as the highest-ranking and most powerful elected woman in American political history.
* (metonymically, chiefly US) The beginning or end of legal proceedings.
* (metonymically, chiefly US) The legal system as a whole.
* A mason's setting maul.

##### Derived terms

* gavel-to-gavel

##### Translations
#### Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)
* To use a gavel.
* To begin or end legal proceedings
    The judge gavelled for order in the courtroom after the defendant burst out with a confession.

##### Usage notes

* In US English, the participles are gaveled and gaveling; in British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English they are gavelled and gavelling.

##### Derived terms

* gavel out
* gavel to order

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

From Old French gavelle (cf. Modern French javelle) probably diminutive from Latin capulus (“handle”), from capere (“to lay hold of, seize”); or compare Welsh gafael (“hold, grasp”). Compare heave.

#### Noun

gavel (plural gavels)
* A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
** 1857, United States Patent Office, Commissioner of Patents Annual Report:The combination with a mechanical rake of the roof or screen herein described, or the equivalent thereof, to intervene and keep the gavel of grain collected on the platform separated during its discharge

##### Translations
### Etymology 4
#### Noun

gavel (plural gavels)
* (Scotland, archaic, architecture) A gable.

### References

* ↑ Edward H[enry] Knight (1877) “Gavel”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton […], →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* glave

## Swedish
### Noun

gavel c
* (architecture) a gable, a short wall of a building
* (idiomatic, in "stå på vid gavel") to be wide open (of a door or the like)
    Synonym: (adjective) vidöppen
    Dörren stod på vid gavelThe door was wide open

#### Related terms

* husgavel

### References

* gavel in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* gavel in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* gavel in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)