pendant

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pendant.
1. A strop, or short length of rope or wire with a thimble spliced into the end, fixed on each side of the main- and foremasts of a square-rigged ship just below the shrouds, and to which the main and fore tackles were hooked. They received their name as they hung vertically downwards as low as the catharpings.

2. Any length of rope or wire used in those places where it is required to transmit the power of a purchase to a distant object. Generally they have a thimble or a block spliced into one end. They usually also have a qualifying name attached to indicate their use: e.g. a cat pendant, used to cat an anchor; and a mooring pendant, used to haul the end of a chain cable round the bows of a ship when two anchors are down and it is necessary to insert a mooring swivel.

See also pennant.

pend·ant / ˈpendənt/ • n. 1. a piece of jewelry that hangs from a chain worn around the neck. ∎  a necklace with such a piece of jewelry. ∎  a light designed to hang from the ceiling. ∎  the part of a pocket watch by which it is suspended. ∎  Naut. a short rope hanging from the head of a ship's mast, yardarm, or clew of a sail, used for attaching tackles. 2. an artistic, literary, or musical composition intended to match or complement another: the triptych's pendant will occupy the corresponding wall in the south transept. • adj. hanging downward; pendent: pendant flowers on frail stems.

pendant. Fixed hanging ornament, resembling an elongated boss suspended from Perpendicular fan-vaulting, Jacobean ceilings, posts of timber roof-trusses, staircase newels, or at the mitring of barge-boards at the apex of a gable. It often resembles an inverted finial.

pendant hanging part XIV; (archit., etc.) truss, spandrel; (naut.) hanging rope, PENNANT; tapering flag, pennon XV; that by which a thing is suspended XVI; parallel, match XVIII. — (O)F., sb. use of prp. of pendre hang; see next.

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• deodorant •different, vociferant •belligerent, refrigerant •accelerant • tolerant • cormorant •itinerant • ignorant • cooperant •expectorant • adulterant •irreverent, reverent •nascent, passant •absent •accent, relaxant •acquiescent, adolescent, albescent, Besant, coalescent, confessant, convalescent, crescent, depressant, effervescent, erubescent, evanescent, excrescent, flavescent, fluorescent, immunosuppressant, incandescent, incessant, iridescent, juvenescent, lactescent, liquescent, luminescent, nigrescent, obsolescent, opalescent, pearlescent, phosphorescent, pubescent, putrescent, quiescent, suppressant, tumescent, turgescent, virescent, viridescent •adjacent, complacent, obeisant •decent, recent •impuissant, reminiscent •Vincent • puissant •beneficent, maleficent •magnificent, munificent •Millicent • concupiscent • reticent •docent •lucent, translucent •discussant, mustn't •innocent •conversant, versant •consentient, sentient, trenchant •impatient, patient •ancient • 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