carabiner

UK/ˌkæ.ɹəˈbiː.nə/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,963 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: carabiners

A carabiner is the sprung metal loop that clips a rope to a harness. Clip in the carabiner, a locking carabiner, the carabiner failed.

The locking kind has a screwgate and is used anywhere a failure would be fatal. The name is short for a German word meaning carbine hook, since soldiers used them to sling a weapon long before climbers took them up.

Definitions of carabiner

1nouncarabinerThe sprung metal loop that clips a rope to a harness.C1
“She checked that the carabiner was locked before she started to climb.”

carabiner is a clip.

Where it comes from

Shortened from German Karabinerhaken, a carbine hook, from slinging a soldier's weapon.

German
Karabinerhaken — carbine hook
English, today
carabiner

Shortened from German Karabinerhaken (“carbine hook”), reflecting that such a link was used for gear slinging even before it was used for rock climbing.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Camping & Outdoors

Practise this word

carabiner in the wild

A quickdraw consists of two carabiners connected by a semi-rigid material (sometimes called the "dogbone").
Quickdraw
One carabiner has a straight gate and connects to an anchoring device.
Quickdraw
Most importantly, the carabiner must be of round cross section for friction.
Bachmann knot
Grabbing hold of the carabiner will release the friction and allow the hitch to slide freely and thus be moved appropriately.
Bachmann knot
Belay devices usually attach to the harness of the belayer via a carabiner, and are usually made of aluminium or an alloy.
Belay device

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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