cleat

English edit

From Middle English clete, from Old English *clēat, clēot, 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. See also clay and clout.

cleat (plural cleats)

A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 35”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
  [...] the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast, to which the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.
- 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:
  I had learned that cattle willingly walk down a ramp that has cleats to provide secure, nonslip footing.
A continuous metal strip, or angled piece, used to secure metal components.
(nautical) A device to quickly affix a line or rope, and from which it is also easy to release.

Nautical cleat
A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe or wheel meant for better traction.
An athletic shoe equipped with cleats.
- 2020, Allyssa Loya, Sporty Bugs and Errors, page 26:
  He needs to put on five pieces of gear: his helmet, left glove, right glove, left cleat, and right cleat.

device to secure a rope

protrusion on the bottom of a shoe

cleat (third-person singular simple present cleats, present participle cleating, simple past and past participle cleated)