0 a device consisting of several hooks (= curved pieces of metal) on the end of a rope, used especially in the past on ships:
Detaching a grappling hook and rope from her utility belt, she secured one end with the grapnel and began to descend.
When the weather calmed her master spent several days trawling for the missing anchors with grapnels.
A grapnel is often quite light, and may have additional uses as a tool to recover gear lost overboard.
A ship's anchor is a type of grapple, especially the grapnel anchor.
Internal mechanisms allow the cable to be neatly wound and unwound, while a powerful spring launches the grapnel.
In the morning the balloon is low enough for the grapnel dangling over the edge to catch on a house.
Ladders and grapnels used by pirates to board merchant vessels were recovered.
