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A metal device fastened on the outside of a wall and tied to the end of a rod or metal strap connecting it with an opposite wall, to prevent bulging; often consisting of a fanciful decorative design.



a device used to hold a ship or other floating craft in place in an open area of water. Two kinds of anchor are distinguished: ship anchors and special-purpose anchors. An anchor must be strong and easy to handle and must take and hold any ground well. Anchors may be described according to holding power, which is defined as the force that must be applied per unit of anchor weight to pull the anchor out of the ground when its shank is horizontal. The holding power depends on the design and weight of the anchor and on the type of bottom ground.

Figure 1. Modern admiralty anchor: (1) stock, (2) shank, (3) fluke, (4) arm

The first anchors, which appeared more than 4,000 years ago, took the form of a stone attached to a rope. Such an anchor may be called an anchor stone. The prototype of the admiralty anchor, the most commonly used anchor in the days of the sailing fleets, was developed about 3,000 years ago; it was fashioned from wood. The admiralty anchor (Figure 1) works in the following manner: the lower end of the shank, called the crown, and one end of the stock settle on the bottom; when an attempt is made to pull the anchor along the bottom, the entire length of the

Figure 2. Types of modern ship anchor: (a) Hall anchor, (b) Baldt anchor, (c) Gruson-Hein anchor, (d) Bayers anchor, (e) Matrosov anchor, (f) Danforth anchor

stock comes to rest on the bottom, and one of the flukes digs into the ground. Anchors of this design are reliable and have good holding power (6–12 kilograms-force per 1 kilogram-force of anchor weight). Since, however, the stock and flukes set in mutually perpendicular planes, paying out the admiralty anchor and stowing it are difficult tasks. Use of the admiralty anchor often resulted in accidents involving its own ship or ships passing over the anchor.

Figure 3. Permanent mooring anchors: (a) Mitchell screw anchor, (b) segment-type anchor, (c) directional anchor

Naval evolution, particularly the construction of larger ships, required the design of anchors that would be easy to handle and would have greater holding power. Virtually all anchors today are made with pivoting flukes and no stock. The most efficient and, consequently, most widely used anchor designs (Figure 2) were developed by the Englishman Hall, the Americans Baldt and Bayers, and the German Hein, whose design was modified at the request of the German firm Gruson. The anchor designed by the Soviet engineer I. R. Matrosov has given a good account of itself, and the holding power of the American Danforth anchor is rated at 200 or more kilograms-force. The world’s largest anchor, which was built in the United States in 1954, weighs 27.2 tons. Today’s anchors are made of cast or welded steel.

Permanent mooring anchors of various designs (Figure 3) are used for floating beacons, anchor buoys, dredges, and other structures that must be moored for lengthy periods of time. The anchor proposed by the English hydraulic engineer Mitchell is considered the best of this type.

Special-purpose anchors (Figure 4) are used in various situations. Sea anchors are used by small ships to reduce drift. The

Figure 4. Special-purpose anchors: (a) sea anchor, (b) ice anchor, (c) grapple, (d) mushroom anchor

simplest sea anchor consists of a canvas cone. Ice anchors, which are used by vessels navigating through ice, usually have one arm and are merely attached to the edge of an ice crack or to the edge of a hole cut in the ice. Special-purpose anchors are extremely varied in design and weight and may have several arms, as does the grapple, or may have none.


Skriagin, L. N. Kniga o iakoriakh. Moscow, 1973.

What does it mean when you dream about an anchor?

Anchors generally convey positive connotations of security, stability, and a harbor against storms. Large bodies of water frequently symbolize the unconscious (or, sometimes, the emotions), making boats vehicles for negotiating the unconscious. Anchors may thus indicate a stable relationship with the unconscious or shelter against the “storms” of the emotions. Loss of an anchor indicates feeling adrift. Less positively, anchors may symbolize a resistance to change or a clinging to a sense of security. As with all dream symbols, the tone and setting of the dream indicate which interpretation is appropriate.


(civil engineering)
A device connecting a structure to a heavy masonry or concrete object to a metal plate or to the ground to hold the structure in place.
(computer science)
A tag that indicates either the source or destination of a hyperlink; for example, HTML anchors are used to create links within a document or to another document.
A device, such as a metal rod, wire,or strap, for fixing one object to another, such as specially formed metal connectors used to fasten together timbers, masonry, or trusses.
(invertebrate zoology)
An anchor-shaped spicule in the integument of sea cucumbers.
An anchor-shaped ossicle in echinoderms.
(mechanical engineering)
In steam plowing, a vehicle located on the side of the field opposite that of the engine and maintaining the tension on the endless wire by means of a pulley.
A device for a piping system that maintains the correct position and direction of the pipes and controls pipe movement occurring as a result of thermal expansion.
A device that prevents the movement of sand cores in molds.
(naval architecture)
A device attached by cable to a ship and dropped overboard so that its hooks or flukes engage the bottom and hold the ship at that location.

anchor, anchorage

medieval anchors, 10
anchor, 9
anchors, 1


See: Hope


1. any of several devices, usually of steel, attached to a vessel by a cable and dropped overboard so as to grip the bottom and restrict the vessel's movement
a. the rear person in a tug-of-war team
b. short for anchorman, anchorwoman
3. at anchor (of a vessel) anchored
4. cast, come to, or drop anchor to anchor a vessel
5. drag anchor See drag
6. ride at anchor to be anchored
7. weigh anchor to raise a vessel's anchor or (of a vessel) to have its anchor raised in preparation for departure



A hypertext browser usually displays a source anchor in some distinctive way, e.g. marked with a special symbol or drawn in a different colour, font or style. When the user activates the link (e.g. by clicking on it with the mouse), the browser displays the destination anchor to which the link refers. Some anchors only look different when the mouse is over them but this forces the user to hunt for them when they should be obvious.

In HTML, anchors are created with the <a..>..</a> construct. The opening "a" tag of a source anchor has an "href" (hypertext reference) attribute giving the destination in the form of a URL - usually a whole node or "page". E.g.

<a href=""> Free On-line Dictionary of Computing</a>


<a name="chapter3">




(1) See anchor tag.




Dream interpretation is very personal and each dream speaks to you in the most intimate way. The anchor symbol could have varying meaning depending on what is going on in your life. It may be saying “Stay put!” or “This is a good place to lay down your anchor.” Dreams involving anchors are hints from your unconscious and may suggest a need to reflect and economize.
References in periodicals archive ?
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan promised his players a Caribbean cruise if they stayed up, so Call Me Dave had better weigh anchor and get the rum punches in.
The Revels drama group is preparing to weigh anchor for its panto production of Sinbad the Sailor which will be staged between January 25 and 28.
Every year a boat hired by Bell's whisky would weigh anchor in the estuary and we would all be invited to troop aboard and get totally smashed out of our skulls.
Back in the days of flat tracks, cheerful chaps and stiff-upper-lips, not even an impending England victory could persuade the steamboat skipper to weigh anchor any longer.
Dock at Wainlode to explore the lovely town of Cheltenham, then weigh anchor at Gloucester's National Waterways Museum before turning around to chug upstream.
Traffic jams are an excuse to boil the kettle or tie up outside one of the pubs that always seems to come into view when you weigh anchor from another.