# pallet

Pronunciation: US/UK say "PAL-it" /ˈpælɪt/; AUS say "PAL-uht" /ˈpælət/

## Noun

1. A portable platform on which goods are stacked for transport or storage, usually built so a forklift can move it easily.
   - Simple: A flat platform for stacking goods so they can be moved or stored, often with a forklift.
   - _The forklift driver lifted a pallet of bottled water onto the truck._
   - _Pallets of cement bags lined the warehouse floor, waiting for delivery._
3. A makeshift bed, put together from whatever is at hand.
   - Simple: A simple bed made quickly from whatever you can find.
   - _She made up a pallet on the living room floor for her visiting nephew._
   - _The volunteers slept on pallets of coats and blankets in the church basement._
4. A bed made of straw, or a mattress stuffed with it.
   - Simple: A bed made of straw.
   - _The prisoner's only furniture was a pallet that crackled with dry straw whenever he turned over._
   - _Travelers at the inn paid a penny for a straw pallet by the fire._
5. One of the pieces or levers, connected with a clock's pendulum or a watch's balance, that receive the direct impulse of the scape-wheel.
   - Simple: One of the small levers, joined to a clock's pendulum or a watch's balance, that a toothed wheel pushes.
   - _Each tooth of the escape wheel strikes a pallet in turn, giving the pendulum a small push._
   - _The watchmaker replaced the worn pallets, and the old clock kept time again._
6. A wooden tool, often oval or round, used by potters, crucible makers, and similar workers to form, beat, and round their pieces.
   - Simple: A wooden tool, often round or oval, that potters and other makers use to shape and beat their work.
   - _The potter beat the sides of the jar with a wooden pallet until the walls were even._
   - _The crucible makers rounded each damp vessel with pallets of hard maple._
7. In an organ, a valve that opens to let air pass from the wind chest into a pipe or row of pipes.
   - Simple: In an organ, a flap that opens to let air from the wind chest into the pipes.
   - _When the organist presses a key, a pallet opens and wind rushes into the pipe._
   - _The builder relined the pallets with fresh leather so they would seal tightly against the wind chest._
8. A small catch, also called a click or pawl, that pushes a ratchet wheel to turn it.
   - Simple: A small catch that pushes a toothed wheel to make it turn.
   - _With each stroke of the lever, the pallet pushes the ratchet wheel forward by one tooth._
   - _The winch stopped turning because both pallets had worn smooth against the ratchet._
9. In heraldry, a narrow vertical stripe that is a diminutive of the pale and narrower than it.
   - Simple: A thin up-and-down stripe on a coat of arms, thinner than the stripe called a pale.
   - _The family's arms show three silver pallets on a red field._
   - _On the old shield, a black pallet divides the field between two golden lions._
10. In gilding, an instrument for lifting gold leaf off the pillow and applying it to a surface.
   - Simple: A tool for picking up very thin gold leaf from a cushion and putting it on something.
   - _With a light touch of the pallet, the gilder raised the thin leaf off its cushion and laid it on the carved frame._
   - _She cut the leaf into strips on the pillow before picking each one up with the pallet._
12. A bookbinder's tool for gilding the spine of a book over its bands.
   - Simple: A tool used to add gold to the back of a book, over the ridges called bands.
   - _The binder heated the pallet and pressed a gold line across the spine above each raised band._
   - _A worn pallet had left the gilt lines over the bands faint and uneven._
13. In brickmaking, a board on which a newly molded brick is carried to the hack to dry.
   - Simple: A board used to carry a newly shaped brick to the place where it dries.
   - _The molder turned each brick out onto a wooden pallet, and a boy carried it off to the hack._
   - _The carrier balanced two pallets at a time, each holding a fresh brick, as he walked to the hack._
14. One of the series of disks or pistons fixed along the chain of a chain pump.
   - Simple: One of the round pieces on the chain of a chain pump that move the water.
   - _Worn leather on the pallets let the water slip back down the tube._
   - _The mechanic fitted a new pallet to the chain, and the pump drew water again._
15. One of a pair of plates made of shell that protect the siphons of certain bivalves, such as Teredo.
   - Simple: One of two small hard plates that guard the water tubes of some clams, such as the shipworm.
   - _Under the lens, the shipworm's left pallet looked like a tiny chalky paddle._
   - _Specialists often tell Teredo species apart by the shape of their pallets._

## Verb

2. To put goods on flat platforms called pallets.
   - Simple: To pile goods onto flat platforms called pallets.
   - _Warehouse staff pallet the finished cartons before the trucks arrive each evening._
   - _The night crew palleted three hundred cases of juice before midnight._

## Noun

11. Archaic form of palette. *(archaic)* — Archaic form of palette.
   - Simple: Archaic form of palette. It is an old spelling for the board an artist mixes paint on.
16. A cup holding three ounces, formerly used by surgeons as a Parisian measure of blood drawn in bloodletting. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A small cup holding three ounces, once used in Paris to measure blood taken from a sick person.
   - _The Paris surgeon drew two pallets of blood from his feverish patient._
   - _Each pallet was filled from the vein in the patient's arm and set aside on the table._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4** — From Middle English paillet, from Anglo-Norman paillete ("bundle of straw"), from Old French paille ("straw, chaff"), from Latin palea ("chaff").
**Meaning 9** — Said to come from an unrecorded Middle English palet, from an unrecorded Middle French palet, from Middle French pal ("pale"), ultimately from Latin palla ("a strip of cloth").
**Meaning 16** — A learned borrowing from French palette.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pallet (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).