gasket
/ˈɡaskɪt
/noun
1A shaped sheet or ring of rubber or other material sealing the junction between two surfaces in an engine or other device: oil was leaking from the gasket between the drive flange and the hub...
- In the past, asbestos has been widely used by South African companies to produce a wide range of products, including gaskets, seals, brake linings, roofing sheets, gutters and other building products, waste pipes and flower pots.
- The rubber gaskets provide a firm seal, and are reusable anytime you need to take it apart.
- The door to the battery is even sealed with a rubber gasket.
2 archaic A cord securing a furled sail to the yard of a sailing ship.One by one they stepped out onto the thin cable slung beneath each yard-arm to pull up the sails and make the gaskets fast....
- Triumph Boats sent me new gaskets for the storage compartment hatches and I put them in, but the compartments still take on water.
- Crewmen scampered about, untying the gaskets on the yawl-rigged barge's tan sails, and halyards started creaking aboard other boats while mooring lines splashed over the side to be hauled up by longshoremen.
Origin
Early 17th century (in sense 2): perhaps from French garcette 'thin rope' (originally 'little girl'), diminutive of garce, feminine of gars 'boy'.
A gasket was at first a cord securing a furled sail to the yard of a sailing ship. It may come from French garcette ‘thin rope’. The term for a flat ring used as a seal in an internal combustion engine dates from the early 20th century.