sling
n. countablen. a piece of cloth or a strap used to support something heavy or broken. You might use one to hold a broken arm or to carry a heavy bag over your shoulder.
n. a flexible strap or bandage used to support, carry, or lift a weight. Often refers to a triangular bandage looped around the neck to support an injured arm.
He had to wear a sling for six weeks after his surgery.
The workers used a heavy-duty nylon sling to lift the engine block out of the car.
In medical emergencies, a simple triangular bandage can be fashioned into a temporary sling to immobilise a fractured limb until professional help arrives.
From Middle English slynge (noun), slyngen (verb), probably from Old Norse slyngja, slyngva (“to hurl”), from Proto-Germanic *slingwaną (“to worm, twist”) or compare Old English slingan (“to wind, twist”), from the same source. Compare German schlingen (“to swing, wind, twist”), Danish and Norwegian slynge), from Proto-Indo-European *slenk- (“to turn, twist”) (compare Welsh llyngyr (“worms, maggots”), Lithuanian sliñkti (“to crawl like a snake”), Latvian slìkt (“to sink”)).
From a shortening of spiderling.
Commonly used with the verb 'to wear' when referring to medical support.