gaffle

Meanings

Noun

• A lever used to bend a crossbow.
• A steel spur attached to a gamecock (sometimes used figuratively).
• A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that it might be accurately aimed and fired.

Verb

• To equip with a gaffle or similar weapon.
• To grab or seize
• To get hold of, to find.
• To arrest for criminal activity.
• To steal
• To swindle or bully (someone)
• To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.

Origin

• From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu, related to Old English gafol, ġeafel.