anchors

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of anchor.

   The crew lowered both anchors to keep the vessel from drifting.

   Storms had torn the older mooring anchors free from the harbor floor.

   Note

   A regular plural that covers every kind of anchor the noun names: iron devices gripping a seabed, the fittings that hold a dam, a bridge cable or a mold's core, and the marked points in a web page that hyperlinks jump to. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb. Word order tells them apart: after a determiner (both anchors) it is a noun, and after a subject (the captain anchors) it is a verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of anchor.

   The captain anchors the vessel offshore whenever the harbor is full.

   A deep foundation anchors the bridge against the river's strongest currents.

   Note

   The verb works with or without an object: a captain anchors the ship, but a ship can also simply anchor offshore. The same -s form carries the broadcaster's sense, where whoever anchors a program presents it, and the emotional one, where someone anchors a person in distress. Its spelling twin is the plural noun, and the subject before it marks it as a verb.

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