pulley

noun

1. (countable)One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance).

   “These pulleys […] placed collaterally.”

   “Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt.”

   “The steel haulage ropes have a breaking strain of 50 tons, and another pair passing around a pulley at the bottom connect the lower ends of the cars and act as tail or balance ropes.”

2. Annular ligament of the finger.

verb

1. (transitive)To raise or lift by means of a pulley.

   “[a mine]is digg'd out with ease, being soft, and is between a white Clay and Chalk at first; but being pulley'd up with the open Air, it receives a crusty kind of hardness”

name

1. A surname.
2. A hamlet in Bayston Hill parish, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ4809).