Other forms: gavels
A gavel is the small hammer struck to close a sale or call order. Bang the gavel, the auctioneer's gavel, under the gavel.
At an auction the strike of the gavel is the moment the contract is made, and until it falls a bid can still be withdrawn. American courts use one and British courts, contrary to every film, do not — an English judge has never had a gavel.
1noungavelA small hammer struck to close a sale.
“The auctioneer banged his gavel, and the painting was sold to the woman at the back.”
gavel is a hammer.
The origin is uncertain; the word is recorded in American use from the nineteenth century for the presiding officer's mallet.
Proto-Germanic
*gebaną — to give
Proto-West Germanic
*gabul
Old English
gafol
Middle English
gavel
English, today
gavel
From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic gabul, from Proto-Germanic gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give + el.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA