gaffle

Meanings

1. A lever used to bend a crossbow.
2. A steel spur attached to a gamecock (sometimes used figuratively).
3. 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.
4. a fork in an orienteering race.

1. To equip with a gaffle or similar weapon.
2. to include a gaffle in an orienteering race.

1. To grab or seize
2. To get hold of, to find.
3. To arrest for criminal activity.
4. To steal
5. To swindle or bully (someone)
6. To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.

Etymology

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