(from Lanier, Fr.), a short piece of cord or line fastened to several machines in a ship, and serving to secure them in a particular place, or to manage them more conveniently. Such are the laniards of the gun-ports, the laniard of the buoy, the laniard of the cat-hook, &c.—The principal laniards used in a ship, however, are those employed to extend the shrouds and stays of the masts by their communication with the dead-eyes, so as to form a sort of mechanical power resembling that of a tackle.—These laniards are fixed in the dead-eyes as follows: one end of the laniard is thrust through one of the holes of the upper dead-eye, and then knotted, to prevent it from drawing out; the other is then passed through one of the holes in the lower dead-eye, whence, returning upward, it is inserted through the second hole in the upper dead-eye, and next through the second in the lower dead-eye, and finally through the third holes in both dead-eyes. The end of the laniard being then directed upwards from the lowest dead-eye, is stretched as stiff as possible by the application of tackles; and that the several parts of it may slide with more facility. LANIGEROUS facility through the holes in the dead-eyes, it is well smeared with hog's-lard or tallow, so that the strain is immediately communicated to all the turns at once.