block and tackle
1
4.2
- noun
- /blɑk ənd ˈtækəl/
- Specialized
:
polea
- The construction workers are putting on the roof, one crew steering sheets of plywood up three floors with block-and-tackle, while another saws the sheets to size, and a third hammers them into place.
- using a block and tackle
Examples
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To raise the old chandelier, they needed a block and tackle to provide enough leverage.
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Duffy, has that delivery truck left yet with the block and tackle?
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And tell them to bring a block and tackle.
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Bring the block and tackle.
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The block and tackle had been rigged from one of the bollards at the end of the pier.
Fiction book (1996) -
From a beam atop the Fidelity Building, there hung a block and tackle, a braided rope that looped through the pulleys, disappearing among the hats and oiled hair of the crowd.
Fiction book (1996) -
The workers used a block and tackle to lift the heavy cargo onto the ship.
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He attached the block and tackle to the tree to hoist the engine out of the truck.
How Complex
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a straightforward, literal combination of its parts: 'block' (a pulley wheel) plus 'tackle' (ropes/gear). A B1 learner who knows these constituents can infer that the phrase refers to the system of pulleys and ropes used for lifting, so the expression is compositional rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Block and tackle comes from work on ships where a block was the wooden box that held a pulley and tackle was the ropes and gear used with it. Together they made it much easier for sailors to lift heavy things, so today the phrase means 'a system of pulleys and ropes' used to lift or move heavy objects.