cleat

cleat

English

Etymology

From Middle English clete, from Old English *clēat, clēot, from Proto-Germanic *klautaz (“firm lump”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelewd-, from *gley- (“to glue, stick together, form into a ball”). Cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball; testicle”) and German Kloß. See also clay and clout.

Pronunciation

• enPR: klēt, IPA^(key): /kliːt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

cleat (plural cleats)

1. A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 35”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     [...] the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast, to which the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.

   • 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:

     I had learned that cattle willingly walk down a ramp that has cleats to provide secure, nonslip footing.

2. A continuous metal strip, or angled piece, used to secure metal components.
3. (nautical) A device to quickly affix a line or rope, and from which it is also easy to release.
   

   Nautical cleat
4. A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe or wheel meant for better traction.
5. An athletic shoe equipped with cleats.
   • 2020, Allyssa Loya, Sporty Bugs and Errors (page 26)

     He needs to put on five pieces of gear: his helmet, left glove, right glove, left cleat, and right cleat.

Derived terms

• expansion cleat

Translations

device to secure a rope

Bulgarian: кнехт m (kneht) Czech: rohatinka (cs) f, vazák m Dutch: klamp (nl) Finnish: knaapi, knaappi, köysipidin French: taquet German: Klampe (de) f Icelandic: krussholt n, klampi m Italian: galloccia f Norwegian: kryssholt Polish: knaga (pl) Portuguese: grampo (pt) Russian: у́тка (ru) f (útka), крепительная у́тка f (krepitelʹnaja útka) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: би̏тва f Roman: bȉtva (sh) f Spanish: cornamusa (es) f Swedish: knap c Ukrainian: кнага f (knaha)

protrusion on the bottom of a shoe

Bulgarian: кабър m (kabǎr) Czech: kolík (cs) m Dutch: nop (nl) Finnish: nappula (fi) French: crampon (fr) m German: Stollen (de) m Hungarian: (please verify) stopli (hu) Norman: tatchet m Romanian: crampon (ro) n Russian: шип (ru) m (šip) Spanish: suela (es) f Swedish: dobb (sv) c (on sports shoes), dubb (sv) c

Verb

cleat (third-person singular simple present cleats, present participle cleating, simple past and past participle cleated)

1. To strengthen with a cleat.
2. (nautical) To tie off, affix, stopper a line or rope, especially to a cleat.

Anagrams

• CELTA, Cleta, eclat, ectal, éclat