DCHP-1 Online

toggle North

• 1 n. on a dog harness, a kind of button or fastener, such as a piece of bone, attached to the end of an individual dog line so that it can be passed through a ring when the dog is being hitched to the main line of a fan hitch, for example.

  • 1867  (1876)  . . . by 'toggles' I mean round pieces of bone made small enough to slip through the bone ring . . .
  • 1918  The dogs' traces should be of skin, and fastened with toggles or buttons to the bow-line.
  • 1940  One unavoidable though minor drawback to the fan hitch arises from the inclination of the animals (dogs) to intermittently shift places; this results in the braiding of the numerous traces forward of the toggle, with the necessity of "clearing" after every few hours of travel

• 2 n. See quote.

  • 1932  These [logs in a log fence] were bound by a wooden toggle -- a grooved piece, shaped above and below to lie across the logs and hold them in place

• 3 n. a stick to which the end of a trap chain is attached, intended to restrict the movements of a trapped animal by catching on snags, trees, etc. as the creature attempts to make off.

  • 1937  He fastened the trap on a heavy spruce stick, called a "toggle," driving the ring on it. . . . He buried the stick and chain . . .