Definition of "cleat"

cleat

/kliːt/

noun
plural cleats
1. A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
  Quotations
  [...] the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast, to which the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 35”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley
  I had learned that cattle willingly walk down a ramp that has cleats to provide secure, nonslip footing.
  1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6
2. A continuous metal strip, or angled piece, used to secure metal components.
3. (nautical) A device to quickly affix a line or rope, and from which it is also easy to release. Nautical cleat
4. A protrusion on the bottom of a shoe or wheel meant for better traction.
5. An athletic shoe equipped with cleats.
  Quotations
  He needs to put on five pieces of gear: his helmet, left glove, right glove, left cleat, and right cleat.
  2020, Allyssa Loya, Sporty Bugs and Errors, page 26
verb
third-person singular simple present cleats, present participle cleating, simple past and past participle cleated
1. To strengthen with a cleat.
2. (nautical) To tie off, affix, stopper a line or rope, especially to a cleat.