CAPSTAN

, a large massy column shaped like a truncated cone; being set upright on the deck of a ship, and turned by levers or bars, passing through holes in its upper extremity. The capstan is a kind of perpetual lever, or an axis-in-peritrochio, which, by means of a strong rope or cable passed round, serves to raise very great weights; such as to hoist sails, to weigh | the anchors, to draw the vessels on shore, and hoist them up to be refitted, &c.