sb.Forms: 3–5 trenayl(e, 6 treenale, 7 trey naile, treenaile, tre-naile, tree-nell, 8 treenel, trenel, 7– treenail, trenail; β. 7–9 trennel, trunnel, (7–8 trunel, 8 trundle), 9 trennail. [f. TREE sb. + NAIL sb.
Some confusion seems to have existed between this word and TRUNDLE (small wheel or roller); cf. the trun- forms, and trundles in sense ‘cylindrical pins or staves forming teeth of lantern-wheel.’]
A cylindrical pin of hard wood used in fastening timbers together, esp. in shipbuilding and other work where the materials are exposed to the action of water.
1295. Exch. Accts., Bundle 5. No. 21 (P.R.O.). [Accts. of building a galley at Lyme.] In loco ij. operariorum per ij. septimanas qui perforaverunt Galeam et imposuerunt trenayl … iiij. sol. In iij. miliariis de trenayl emptis vj. sol. et. ix. den.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 164. C di Tre nayles xijd.
[1561–3. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1832), III. 414/2–4. Tree nails, 6 m. 30 inch @ c 2/6…. 15 m 16 inch @ c 1/4…. 6 c 24 inch @ 2/-.]
1571. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 361. iij houndrethe treenales viijd.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 4. The other parts of those plankes are made fast with good Tree-nailes and Trunnions of well seasoned timber.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 118. Trenails.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 39, note. Holes being bored through every piece of stone, one course was further bound to another by oak trenails.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, vii. 98. The English seamen seizing some wooden treenails, struck the natives with them about their heads and shoulders.
1864. Daily Tel., 30 July. The line was opened in 1854, and the chairs were then secured to the sleepers by Ransome’s trenails.
β. c. 1635. Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Services (1685), Trennels.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 22. The fastening of our Plank we perform with wooden Trunnels.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 39. The Plank … fasten’d to the Timbers … with Trennels or Pins of Wood.
1769. Nat. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 100, note. Great square logs of pine, laid one upon another, and pinned together with oak trunels.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 95. These Belts are to be pinned with Oak Trundles of about 3/4 Inch Diameter.
1828. Cunningham, N. S. Wales, 67. Cargoes consisting of wool, skins,… trennails, and hides.
b. attrib.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 313. ij lode of Trenayle wode.
1863. P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 110. Seventeenth in order stand the trenail-houses. For the year the expenditure in these houses was £4,411 11s. 103/4d.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Tree-nail wedge, a cross is cut in the tree-nail end, and wedges driven in, caulked.
Hence Treenail v., trans. to fasten or secure (timbers) with treenails. (Chiefly in pa. pple.)
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 14. All the plankes to be treenailed to the beames.
1633. T. James, Voy., 76. She was ready to be boulted and trenneld.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 38. The balks, in all their intersections with each other, trenailed together.
1834. Gentl. Mag., CIV. I. 94/2. The timber head of a vessel,… built chiefly of oak timber, with some elm and fir, clinker built, and trunnelled.
