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cleat

UK/kliːt/US/kliːt/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,992 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: cleats

A cleat is the fitting that locks a cycling shoe to a pedal. Clip in the cleat, a worn cleat, adjust the cleats.

It bolts to the sole and clicks into the pedal, so the foot cannot slip and the rider can pull as well as push. The position is set carefully, because a few millimetres out will cause knee pain over a long ride. On a boat a cleat is what a rope is tied to.

User:Donnovello617 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of cleat

  1. 1nouncleatThe fitting that locks a shoe to a pedal.C1

    “He clipped his cleats into the pedals and set off up the hill.”

cleat is a fitting.

Where it comes from

Old English cleat meant a wedge or lump, from a Germanic root meaning a firm mass.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *gelewd-

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *klautaz — firm lump

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *klaut

  4. Old English

    *clēat — block, wedge

  5. Middle English

    clete

  6. English, today

    cleat

Built from

  • *gley- · Proto-Indo-European — to glue, stick together, form into a ball

From Middle English clete, from Old English clēat (“block, wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic klaut, from Proto-Germanic klautaz (“firm lump”), from Proto-Indo-European gelewd-, from gley- (“to glue, stick together, form into a ball”). Cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball; testicle”) and German Kloß (“clump”). See also clay and clout.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Cycling

Practise this word

cleat in the wild

  • Shimano Pedaling Dynamics, commonly called SPD, is a design of clipless bicycle pedals and associated cleats first released by Shimano in 1990.

    Shimano Pedaling Dynamics

  • Designed primarily for mountain biking, SPD uses a recessed two-bolt cleat that allows riders to walk more easily than with road-cycling oriented clipless systems.

    Shimano Pedaling Dynamics

  • In nautical contexts, a cleat is a device for securing a rope.

    Cleat (nautical)

  • A ring fairlead holds the halyard parallel to the mast so its cleat can be located near to the cockpit.

    Fairlead

  • A turn is one round of rope on a pin or cleat, or one round of a coil.

    Turn (knot)

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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.