From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcleatcleat /kliːt/ noun [countable] 1 TDa small bar with two short arms around which ropes can be tied, especially on a ship2 [usually plural]DC a short piece of rubber, metal etc attached to the bottom of a sports shoe in order to prevent someone from slipping SYN stud3 → cleats
Examples from the Corpus
cleat• Bats and batting helmets as well as gloves and cleats were collected.• A new Skywalk sole with an environmentally-friendly cleat pattern gives a good grip even on slippery rocks.• Janir stood out in center field wearing his cleats, his uniform and the new glove we had bought and oiled.• I pointed out the crampons, the little cleats attached to the bottoms.• There were powder burns all over the Raiders' cleats at the Oakland Coliseum Sunday.• He sat hunched by the stern cleat, knife ready to cut the Zodiac free.• When he unwound the rope from the cleat the bell rang once.• The foredeck man snubbed it on the cleat.Origin cleat (1300-1400) Probably from an unrecorded Old English cleat 