harness

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A restraint or support, especially one consisting of a loop or network of rope or straps, and especially one worn by a working animal such as a horse pulling a carriage or farm implement.
  2. A collection of wires or cables bundled and routed according to their function: a wiring harness.
  3. The complete dress, especially in a military sense, of a man or a horse; armour in general.
  4. The part of a loom comprising the heddles, with their means of support and motion, by which the threads of the warp are alternately raised and depressed for the passage of the shuttle.
  5. Equipment for any kind of labour.
  6. A software framework.
  7. A system designed to manage the use of AI agents, specifically in software development.
verb
  1. To place a harness on something; to tie up or restrain.
  2. To capture, control or put to use.
  3. To equip with armour.

Pronunciation

/ˈhɑː.nəs/ /ˈhɑɹ.nəs/ en-us-harness.ogg /ˈhaː.nəs/

Word forms

harness harnesses harnass harnessing harnessed

Etymology

From Middle English harneys, harnes, harneis, harnais, herneis, from Anglo-Norman harneis and Old French hernois (“equipment used in battle”), believed to be from Old Norse *hernest, from herr (“army”) + nest (“provisions”) (from Proto-Germanic *nesaną (“to heal, recover”)). More at harry.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.