GM

GM (countable and uncountable, plural GMs)

The report notes that the minimum GM curves in the stability booklet were generated based on the minimum GM required to meet intact stability criteria in 46 CFR 170.170. However, for vessels required to meet both damage and intact stability requirements, such as El Faro, the higher of intact or damage stability minimum GM must be reflected in the minimum GM curves.

2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12.10 Postaccident Analysis of Stability, Structures, and Sinking”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015, archived from the original on 2022-05-15, page 152:

Metacentric height
metacentric height#English

(usually uncountable, nautical, engineering, physics) Metacentric height, a measure of a ship's static stability in roll.


USS

(nautical, military) Initialism of United States Ship.


thwart

Lake Maria State Park
Middle English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The adjective is derived from Early Middle English thwert, thwerte, thuart, thurt, thurte, thwart, thwarte, twart, twarte, twhart, twhert, twort, þuert, þwerrt, þwert, þwerte, ðwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate”), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweraną (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
The English adjective is cognate with Danish tvær (“sullen, sulky”), Gothic 𐌸𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍃 (þwairs, “angry”), Middle Dutch dwers, dwars (modern Dutch dwars (“crosswise, transverse; slantwise, askew; stubbornly disobedient”)), Norwegian tvert, tvært, Old Frisian þweres, dwers (Saterland Frisian twars, West Frisian dwers, dwerz (“across, to the other side of; beyond”)), Middle Low German dwers, dwars (Low German dwars (“contrary; cross-grained”)), Old English þweorh (“transverse; perverse; angry, cross”), Old High German twer (Middle High German twer, quer, modern German quer (“crosswise; cross”)), Swedish tvär (“across, transverse; of a curve: sharp; immediate, sudden; grumpy, stubborn”). It is related to queer; also Proto-West Germanic *þwerh,
The adverb is derived from Middle English thwert, ywerte (“crosswise; across the grain”); the Middle English Dictionary suggests the adverb was derived from the adjective, while the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the adverb is attested earlier than the adjective.
The verb is derived from Middle English thwerten, thwert, thwarten, þwerten (“to lie across; to oppose, to thwart”), and further from the adverb and perhaps also the adjective.
Noun sense 1 (“a seat across a boat on which a rower may sit”) may be derived from the adverb or adjective, from the position of the seat across the length of the boat, while noun sense 3 (“(rare) an act of thwarting”) is derived from the verb. Compare Middle English thwert (“in in thwert: crosswise”), from the adjective.

cog

The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.

When taking his seat in a boat, the learner should first observe that the thwart is firmly fixed, and that the mat upon it is securely tied to that part of it which is farthest from his rowlock.

[1876–1879?], “Our Holiday. Rowing.—I.”, in The Popular Educator: A Complete Encyclopædia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education, new and revised edition, volume IV, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, […], →OCLC, page 32, column 2:

(nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

A well-made dugout canoe rarely needs a thwart.

A conſiderable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were ſecurely laſhed on each ſide, as a ſtrengthening to the boat [a canoe].

1773, “Of the Canoes and Navigation of the Inhabitants of New Zealand; […]”, in John Hawkesworth, editor, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, […] In Three Volumes, volume III, Printed for W[illiam] Strahan and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book II, page 58:

My barge was sixty feet in length, and not more than twelve in the widest part; by taking away one thwart beam near the stern, laying a floor two feet below the gunwale, and raising an arched roof about seven feet above the floor, a commodious room was formed, fourteen feet long, and ten wide, with a closet behind it; […]

1800, Michael Symes, chapter VII, in An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, by the Governor-General of India, in the Year 1795, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., […]; and sold by Messrs. G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol, […]; and J[ohn] Wright, […], →OCLC, page 223:

I looked down into the Old Town [a canoe]; there was no yoke, only a straight ash thwart.

2015, Cliff Jacobson, “Outfitting and Customizing Your Canoe”, in Canoeing Wild Rivers: The 30th Anniversary Guide to Expedition Canoeing in North America, 5th edition, Guildford, Conn., Helena, Mont.: Falcon Guides, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 66:

(nautical) A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.


layup

The caboose, long decrepit, rested on a forgotten layup just north of the dry riverbed.

The City Hall station on the BMT line [...] has a lower level that was never put into service. Yet the platforms have been maintained, are well illuminated, and serve as a layup and storage area for the MTA.

2005, Julia Solis, New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City, New York City: Routledge, →ISBN, page 83:

(rail transport, countable or uncountable) A track used to store train cars.

Though I knew we shouldn't be there, she pulled me out of the tunnel and into the dark layup, its floors still grubby from the morning commute many hours ago.

A nonmoving empty train, or a layup, was easiest to pin down at night or on weekends when trains would park on the dormant stretches of express tracks.

2010, Michele Carlo, Fish Out of Agua: My Life on Neither Side of the (Subway) Tracks, New York City: Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 88:

(rail transport) A train car sitting in storage (laid up), often overnight.


rummage

en-verb

rummage (third-person singular simple present rummages, present participle rummaging, simple past and past participle rummaged)

rummages (present singular third-person)
rummaging (participle present)
rummaged (participle past)
rummaged (past)

From Middle English ronage, from Old French arrumage (compare French arrimage), from arrumer (“to arrange the cargo in the hold”) (compare French arrimer and Spanish arrumar).

gurnjescu

to search something which contains many items

тършувам

to search something thoroughly and with disregard

(transitive, nautical) To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.

After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.

(transitive, nautical) To search a vessel for smuggled goods.


rummage

en-noun

rummage (countable and uncountable, plural rummages)

(nautical) A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship.

(nautical) The act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage.


yardarm

Sun's under the yardarm, sis!

2006, Megan Kelso, “1: The Squirrel Mother”, in The Squirrel Mother: Stories, →ISBN, page 13:

(nautical) The outer end of a yard, often equipped with blocks for reeving signal halyards.


suspend

en-verb

suspend (third-person singular simple present suspends, present participle suspending, simple past and past participle suspended)

suspends (present singular third-person)
suspending (participle present)
suspended (participle past)
suspended (past)

resume

antonym(s) of “to halt something temporarily, to discontinue or interrupt a function, task, position, or event”

From Old French sospendre, from Latin suspendere.

(travel, aviation) To remove the value of an unused coupon from an air ticket, typically so as to allow continuation of the next sectors' travel.


Mario

From Italian and Spanish Mario, both of which coming from Latin Marius.

(automotive, motor racing, figurative) Ellipsis of Mario Andretti (“one who drives fast or recklessly”).


keel over

keel over (third-person singular simple present keels over, present participle keeling over, simple past and past participle keeled over)

keels over (present singular third-person)
keeling over (participle present)
keeled over (participle past)
keeled over (past)

Aelius Donatus
Augustus
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Livia
Octavia the Younger
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Virgil

The original nautical meaning (sense 1) refers to a vessel rolling to the extent that its keel (“a large beam along the underside of the vessel’s hull from bow to stern”) is visible.

What a tiny little schooner! But is it not bold to spread both sails? And see, now that we have come round to the wind, how the skiff keels over.

1844 May, Peter von Geist, “A Piscatorial Eclogue”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXIII, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, Nassau-Street, →OCLC, page 462:

[H]is bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale's topmost back. Nothing loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Town-Ho’s Story. (As Told at the Golden Inn.)”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 289:

The tributaries made their appearance from the house, advancing in a singular manner. They were all clothed in immense pieces of tappa looped about their persons. First one crawled on all fours for a few yards; then he keeled over, head over heels; then he brought up on his haunches, resting for a moment; after which he resumed the same procedure until he came within a few paces of "Old Snuffy."

1853 September, “A Cruise after and among the Cannibals”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume VII, number XL, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 473, column 1:

At home, the water had deepened; it tumbled like rapids across the yard; it encroached upon the house; it shoved one-foot stones aside and carved grooves through the gravel driveway; the chain link fence was keeling over under the pressure surging through it.

1978 October 5, Bill Simmons, “‘… A day of fear’”, in Arkansas Democrat, page 6D; reprinted in “Attachment I (to Main Report): Supplement to Arkansas Democrat: 13 September 1978 Flood”, in Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement for Water Resource Development: Fourche Bayou Basin, Vicinity Little Rock, Arkansas, volume I (Main Report), Little Rock, Ark.: U.S. Army Engineer District, Little Rock, 1979 October, →OCLC:

(intransitive, nautical, also figuratively) Of a vessel: to roll so far on its side that it cannot recover; to capsize or turn turtle.

omvallen

of a vessel: to roll so far on its side that it cannot recover — see also capsize


knock down

knock down (third-person singular simple present knocks down, present participle knocking down, simple past and past participle knocked down)

knocks down (present singular third-person)
knocking down (participle present)
knocked down (participle past)
knocked down (past)

(dated, trains) To send a stop signal to ensure a train is signalled to stop at the correct point.


knockdown

en-noun

knockdown (countable and uncountable, plural knockdowns)

(nautical) The condition of a sailboat being pushed abruptly to horizontal, with the mast parallel to the water surface.


waistline

[...] with the adoption of a curved bodyside profile Bulleid considerably raised the height of the waistline and at the shoulder height of seated passengers, just where the extra space was most needed.

1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 396:

(automotive) The horizontal line just below the windows of a car or other vehicle.


knitting

knitting (countable and uncountable, plural knittings)

From Middle English knyttynge; equivalent to knit + -ing.

Fair point. Instead of tearing down the knitting and using diesel, tear down the knitting and use turbines.

2002 April 26, David Stevenson, “Re: Diesel vs Electric”, in uk.railway (Usenet), retrieved 2018-04-10, message-ID <B8EF5604.1C7F1%hoagy@cix.co.uk>:

It also helps, if: [...] the knitting is aligned with the track below, or rather vice versa, something else that went after 1996.

2007 October 19, "Capt. Deltic", “Re: GNER knitting down (again)”, in uk.railway (Usenet), retrieved 2018-04-10, message-ID <1192811754.580518.56340@e34g2000pro.googlegroups.com>:

My suggestion would be to electrify the uphill bits only, in each direction, and to use diesel traction when coming down the other side. Massive savings on posts and knitting for a start.

2016 December 9, Andrew Clarke, “Re: Great Western Railway warns of slower journeys on new trains”, in uk.railway (Usenet), retrieved 2018-04-10, message-ID <111f6d4a-e880-4b12-89f3-04250296ea7d@googlegroups.com>:

(rail transport, informal, UK) overhead electrification wires, OHLE


ps

(automotive, in classified ads) Abbreviation of power steering.


glory hole

(nautical) In the merchant and Royal Navy:

In the merchant and Royal Navy:
A generally untidy place.

The stewards' mess on a passenger liner.

The stokehold on a coal-burning tramp steamer.


outward

en-adv

outward (comparative more outward, superlative most outward)

more outward (comparative)
most outward (superlative)

From Middle English outward, from Old English ūtweard, equivalent to out + -ward.


waft

From Middle English waften, of uncertain origin. Possibly from unattested Old English *wafettan, from wafian (“to wave”) + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”).
See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).

der

(nautical) A flag used to indicate wind direction or, with a knot tied in the center, as a signal; a waif, a wheft.


yeoman

From Middle English yoman, yeman, from Old English *ġēamann, from Proto-West Germanic *gauwjamann (compare Old Frisian gāman (“villager”), Middle Dutch goymann (“arbiter”)), compound of Proto-West Germanic *gawi (“shire, district”) (compare Old English -ġē, -ġēa (“district, region”) (in ælġē, Sūþriġēa), West Frisian gea, goa, Dutch gouw, German Gau) + *mann (“man”).

m+

(nautical) In a vessel of war, the person in charge of the storeroom.

文書軍士

nautical: person in charge of the storeroom


waterlog

en-verb

waterlog (third-person singular simple present waterlogs, present participle waterlogging, simple past and past participle waterlogged)

waterlogs (present singular third-person)
waterlogging (participle present)
waterlogged (participle past)
waterlogged (past)

(transitive, nautical) To make (a boat) heavy and in danger of sinking by flooding it with water.


waterlogged

en-adj

waterlogged (comparative more waterlogged, superlative most waterlogged)

more waterlogged (comparative)
most waterlogged (superlative)

(nautical) in danger of sinking because of excess water onboard


washout

en-noun

washout (countable and uncountable, plural washouts)

huuhtoutuminen

erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water; channel produced by this action

In a message to NR [National Rail] staff on August 14, Haines said: "It's not just Scotland impacted by extreme wet weather. This week we have seen, and will continue to see, heavy rain fall. This has caused washouts and landslips across the length and breadth of Great Britain."

2020 August 26, “Network News: [Grant] Shapps Orders Rapid Review of Flash Flood Resilience from NR”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:

The erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water; also, a channel produced by this action.

(originally US, rail transport, road transport) A breach in a railway or road caused by flooding.


blink

blink (countable and uncountable, plural blinks)

From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English blincan (suggested by causative verb blenċan (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).
Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.

cog

(nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink


souped-up

en-adj

souped-up (comparative more souped-up, superlative most souped-up)

more souped-up (comparative)
most souped-up (superlative)

Uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup (“liquid food item”), connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified clipping of supe(r), with reference to an aeroplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the 1925 quotation. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.

$600.00 BUYS T. M. Scout with "Souped up" OX5 motor. Snappiest commercial single seater built. H. W. Mackie, Air Service, Houston, Texas.

1925 September, “Classified Advertisements”, in H[enry] H[aven] Windsor, editor, Popular Mechanics Magazine, volume 44, number 3, Chicago, Ill.: Popular Mechanics Co., →OCLC, page 33, column 3:

[W]ill it be possible to mount a larger engine for use in La Paz? I doubt very much if the standard 165 would get off the ground up here with a student. I wish you would take that up with the factory and see if they can put out a job with a suped-up seven-cylinder job. The R-540 I think it is.

1933 September 13, “[Appendix: Exhibits] Exhibit No. 343: CWW #35 [Letter to C. W. Webster, Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation]”, in Munitions Industry: Hearings before the Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, United States Senate, Seventy-third Congress […], part 1 (September 4, 5 and 6, 1934: Electric Boat Co.), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, published 1934, →OCLC, page 925:

AUTOMOBILES: SAFETY; Teen-Agers With ‘Souped Up’ Vehicles Urged to Be Careful on Labor Day

1948 August 29, Bert Pierce, “Automobiles: safety; Teen-agers with ‘souped up’ vehicles urged to be careful on Labor Day”, in The New York Times, headline:

TALKING SHOP with young hot-rodder friends, Mrs. Bush keeps grandson waiting in his souped-up car […] at Eddie's Market, social center of South Brooksville, Maine (pop. 150), where she is vacationing with daughter.

1952 September 8, Milton Lehman, “The First Woman Driver: A.A.A. Honors Motorist Who Got License in 1900, Never Had a Dent”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 33, number 10, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, image caption, page 92:

The suspicion grows that this souped-up erudition disguises a paucity of thought, which of all things seems to be based on a lack of historical good sense, or, if you will, of good historical sense.

1989, Irving Louis Horowitz, “Erich Kahler: History and Society in Retrospect”, in Persuasions and Prejudices: An Informal Compendium of Modern Social Science 1953–1988, New Brunswick, N.J., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 62:

In the drinking that follows that afternoon it is a wonder that no one dies of alcohol poisoning. The final kegs die at around 1800 hours or so, and that is when Coolidge's wife Melanie starts making her souped-up Atomic Kamikazes.

2000, J. S. Kindrick, The Spirit Horses, San Jose, Calif., Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 118:

The vehicles, guided by sophisticated software, gave scientists hope that robots may one day take part in battles without endangering soldiers. The driverless vehicles ranged from souped-up SUVs (sports utility vehicles) to hi-tech dune buggies.

2005 October 9, “Four Robotic Racers Cross Desert”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2018-03-13:

He [George Miller] spent nearly 20 years developing the movie, keeping at it through false starts and heartbreaking dead ends. And when he got the chance to make it, he went all in, devising entire societies full of baroquely souped-up death machines and screaming war-cults.

2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road Might Already be the Best Action Movie Ever Made”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-02-22:

The Netherlands, once famed for being cycle-friendly, is facing a surprising threat: souped-up electric bikes speeding at up to 42kph (26mph).

2023 January 14, Senay Boztas, “Amsterdam calls for crackdown on menace of souped-up e-bikes”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(road transport, slang) Of an engine, a motor vehicle, etc.: modified for higher performance.


tramline

(rail transport) The rails that a tram runs on.


bireme

(historical, nautical) An ancient galley having two banks of oars, one above the other.


bilge pump

(nautical) A small pump fitted in ships and boats to pump the bilges clear of water.


bill of lading

But all the while Captain Amos Brown was telling whackers that would have done credit to Baron Munchausen, he was really thinking of how he was to save those whose passage to a port not named in any bills of lading looked almost certain.

1908, Morley Roberts, “The Captain of the Ullswater”, in The Blue Peter:

(shipping) A document issued by a carrier (e.g. master of a ship or the ship owner's agent) to a shipper listing a ship's cargo, acknowledging receipt of said cargo, and specifying terms for its delivery.


bitts

From Middle English, probably of Low German or North Germanic origin, and the English form a corruption or contraction, from Old Norse biti, probably ultimately from a variant of Proto-Germanic *bitiz. Compare Swedish beting and Danish beding.

(nautical, plural only) A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor


bitter end

The figurative usage is influenced by bitter (“unpleasant, arduous”).

pay out a rope to the bitter end (pay out all of the rope)

(nautical) That part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor.

étalingure

that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor

(nautical) The final six fathoms (11 m) of anchor chain before the point of attachment in the chain locker of modern US naval vessels.


blow-by

en-noun

blow-by (countable and uncountable, plural blow-bys)

internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine

(automotive) In an internal combustion engine, any burnt or unburnt matter escaping from the cylinder, past the (worn) rings on the piston, and into the crankcase.


binnacle

Corruption of earlier bittacle, from French habitacle. Or from obsolete Spanish or Portuguese bitácula, both from Late Latin habitāculum (“little dwelling place”). Compare modern Spanish bitácora.

der

The lamp, or candle, which lights the binnacle, is placed in the cabin, of course the expence of one light is saved, and all the inconveniences of blowing out in a squally night, and likewise the trouble of trimming the lamp, are avoided.

1811, The Tradesman, volume 7, page 420:

(nautical) The wooden housing for a ship's compass, with its corrector magnets and illuminating arrangements. The log and other equipment for measuring the ship's speed are also stowed there.

bitàcola

(nautical) the wooden housing for a ship's compass


run afoul of

en-verb

run afoul of (third-person singular simple present runs afoul of, present participle running afoul of, simple past ran afoul of, past participle run afoul of)

runs afoul of (present singular third-person)
running afoul of (participle present)
ran afoul of (past)
run afoul of (participle past)

(nautical) To become entangled in; to run aground on.


weigh anchor

weigh anchor (third-person singular simple present weighs anchor, present participle weighing anchor, simple past and past participle weighed anchor)

weighs anchor (present singular third-person)
weighing anchor (participle present)
weighed anchor (participle past)
weighed anchor (past)

1986, Ben Elton et al., Blackadder II, 3: "Potato"
- Aah-ahhh! You have a woman’s hand, milord! I’ll wager these dainty pinkies never weighed anchor in a storm.
- Well, you’re right there.

(nautical) To raise the anchor of a ship or boat prior to getting under way.


under way

(nautical, of a vessel) Moving through the water; not anchored, moored, aground, or beached.


tuck

From Middle English tuken, touken (“to torment, to stretch (cloth)”), from Old English tūcian (“to torment, vex”) and Middle Dutch tucken (“to tuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (compare also *tukkōną), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, tug”), zuchôn (“to jerk”), German Low German tuken (“to tug, pluck, grab and pull towards”), Old English tēon (“to draw, pull, train”). Doublet of touch.

cog

(nautical) The afterpart of a ship, immediately under the stern or counter, where the ends of the bottom planks are collected and terminate by the tuck-rail.


bolster

From Middle English bolster, bolstre, from Old English bolster (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *bolstr, from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz (“pillow, cushion”). Cognate with Scots bowster (“bolster”), West Frisian bulster (“mattress”), Dutch bolster (“husk, shell”), German Polster (“bolster, pillow, pad”), Swedish bolster (“soft mattress, bolster”), Icelandic bólstur (“pillow”).

cog

(vehicles, agriculture) A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn.


coaming

From earlier coming, apparently from comb (“crest”) + -ing; however, exact origin uncertain.

(nautical) On a boat, the vertical side of above-deck structures, such as the coach roof, hatch, and cockpit.

luikhoofd

on a boat, the vertical side of the hatch


Mexican standoff

en-noun

Mexican standoff (plural Mexican standoffs)

Mexican standoff
Reservoir Dogs
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

1876 US.
Three-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992); earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”.

(rail transport) A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet.


whipping

whipping (countable and uncountable, plural whippings)

Never cut a line or leave the end of a line dangling loose without a whipping to prevent it from unlaying. A line without a whipping will unlay of its own accord. A frayed line is a painful sight to a good seaman. Whenever a line or hawser has to be cut, whippings should be put on first. Put one whipping on each side of the cut. To prevent fraying, a temporary or plain whipping can be put on with any type of cordage, even with rope yarn.

1999, Marine Crewman's Handbook: Field Manual 55-501, US Dept of the Army:

(nautical) The lashing of the end of a rope.


train spotter

(rail transport) a person whose hobby is train spotting


vestibule

Early 17th century, borrowed from French vestibule (“entrance court”), from Latin vestibulum (“forecourt, entrance court; entrance”), from vestiō (“to dress, clothe, vest”) + -bulum (“place, location”, nominal suffix). Doublet of vestibulum.

նախասրահ

small entrance hall before main hall or lobby

The exit side of the front vestibule contains a sliding door.

1912, Electric Railway Journal, volume XL, number 14, page 556:

The units have transverse seats, two and three astride the passageway with single or double longitudinal seats alongside the two entrance vestibules in each car.

1960 November, “New electric multiple-units for British Railways: Glasgow Suburban”, in Trains Illustrated, page 660:

(architecture) A small entrance hall, antechamber, passage, or room between the outer door and the main hall, lobby, or interior of a building.

(rail transport) An enclosed entrance at the end of a railway passenger car.

eteinen

enclosed entrance of a railway passenger car


Windex

From a brand of mast-top wind indicator for sailing boats, derived from wind.

(sailing) An arrow-shaped indicator of wind direction installed in mast-top.


counter

From Old French contre, Anglo-Norman cuntre, both from Latin contra.

[ˈkʰaʊ̯.ɾ̃ɚ]

(nautical) The overhanging stern of a vessel above the waterline, below and somewhat forward of the stern proper.


B-unit

(trains) A locomotive with an engine, generator, and traction motors, but without a control cab.


there she blows

"There she blows! there! there! there! she blows! she blows!"
"Where-away?"
"On the lee-beam, about two miles off! a school of them!"

1851, Herman Melville, chapter 47, in Moby Dick:

(nautical) The traditional hail of the lookout in a whaler (whaling ship) when sighting the spouting water thrown up by a whale surfacing.


Blue Riband

The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm left New York on May 3 [1904], at 3.10 p.m. and reached Plymouth Sound on May 9 at 8 a.m. This was then a very fast crossing of the Atlantic, but it was not the record. The same ship had held the "Blue Riband" in 1902, but had been slightly bested by the Kaiser Wilhelm II, a larger vessel of the same line, in 1903, and that stood as the record until the Cunard Line secured the honours in 1909 with the Mauretania and held them for an unbroken period of 20 years.

1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, pages 201–202:

(nautical) A trophy for the fastest sea crossing of the Atlantic by a liner.


bluejacket

It never entered his mind that here was a matter which from its extreme questionableness, it was his duty as a loyal blue-jacket to report in the proper quarter.

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:

‘[…] I’m not sure’, she continued, ‘that I won’t throw myself overboard, for the mere pleasure of being rescued by a blue-jacket […]’

1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 4, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

The Navy and the Indian tribes up and down the Coast took part in the races, the Navy rowing their heavy ship's boats round from Esquimalt Harbour, manned by blue-jackets, while smart little pinnaces “pip-pipped” along commanded by young midshipmen.

1942, Emily Carr, “Regatta”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

(nautical) A seaman of a British warship

[…] drift like tear-starting smoke across these exciting pages written by a bluejacket of the U.S. Navy.

1939, Fred J. Buenzle, Arthur Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, page 12:

(nautical) An enlisted man in the US Navy.


boatswain's chair

en-noun

boatswain's chair (plural boatswain's chairs)

(nautical) A short board or other seating, secured in a bridle of ropes, used to hoist a man aloft or over the ship’s side for painting and similar work.

puosuntuoli

rope and board for painting side of ship


boatswain's pipe

boatswain's pipe (plural boatswain's pipes)

(nautical) A whistle, previously used by boatswain's mates to pipe orders throughout a ship; now used for the ceremonial piping onboard of visiting dignitaries.

Bootsmannpfeife

a whistle, previously used by boatswain's mates to pipe orders throughout a ship


bobstay

Audio (US)

(nautical) A strong rope or chain rigging running from the end of the bowsprit to the ship's stem or cutwater.


bower anchor

(nautical) each of the two main anchors of a ship, carried permanently attached to their cables on each side of the bow, always ready to be let go in case of an emergency.


boot-topping

(nautical) The process of cleaning the upper part of a ship's underwater hull and daubing it with a protecting layer of antifouling substance.

(nautical) Any substance used for boot-topping, especially a mixture of tallow, sulphur or lime and rosin, which was commonly used to paint the bottoms of wooden ships, as a deterrent against weeds and barnacles, and to reduce friction.

(nautical) The paint of the part of the hull that is designed to be underwater.


stretcher

The jointed stretcher is used in place of the sectional bottom board, with two sideboards, one each side of stretcher. The boat set up this way only weights 20 pounds, and makes a very convenient boat for trout-fishing, duck-hunting, or exploring in ponds or streams where the paddle will do as well as the oars.

1884, J. W. Collins, Bulletin of the United States National Museum: Great International Fisheries Exhibition, page 703:

Directly the oar has been disengaged from the water, all pressure on the stretcher ceases, and the strain of the recovery of the body is eased by a slight pull with the feet on the straps of the stretcher.

1900, Alfred Edward Thomas Watson, The Young Sportsman, page 479:

Betwean each beam of the boat is also fastened a piece of timber called a stretcher or footspur, against which they place their feet when rowing, to enable them to have a more complete command of their oar.

1909, Samuel McSkimin, The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus, from the Earliest Records Till 1839, page 362:

Each rower's feet are set in shoes which are secured in the boat in a stretcher (or foot board) set into a fixed position to suit the length of the rower's legs.

2003, J. Alswang, The South African Dictionary of Sport, page 203:

[…] these seem to indicate a thwart, foot-timber (stretcher), thole-pin combination for rowing.

2014, Sean Mcgrail, Ancient Boats in North-West Europe, page 80:

(nautical) A board against which a rower places his feet.

jalkatuki

nautical: board against which a rower places his feet


boarding party

boarding party (plural boarding parties)

Enemy boarding parties on starboard decks Eight through Ten.

2001 November 15, Bungie, Halo: Combat Evolved, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Pillar of Autumn:

(nautical) The group of sailors who were selected to board an enemy ship and, when in control, to make such repairs to rigging and sail that the ship could be taken to port as a prize


booby-hatch

(nautical) A small hatchway in the deck of a ship.


manhandle

en-verb

manhandle (third-person singular simple present manhandles, present participle manhandling, simple past and past participle manhandled)

manhandles (present singular third-person)
manhandling (participle present)
manhandled (participle past)
manhandled (past)

From Middle English manne-handlen, man handelen, equivalent to man (“male person”) + handle.

I see him—Tom—on horse-block standing,
Trumpet at mouth, thrown up all amain,
An elephant's bugle, vociferous demanding
Of topmen aloft in the hurricane of rain,
"Letting that sail there your faces flog?
Manhandle it, men, and you'll get the good grog!"

(transitive, nautical) To move something heavy by force of men, without aid of levers, pulleys, machine, or tackles.


blue peter

The flag, serving as a signal of recall for departure, was used by the British Navy from 1777, and the name “blue peter” had become common by the end of the 18th century. An all-blue flag had earlier seen use for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Company. While “blue” obviously refers to the dominant colour of the flag, the origin of the second part of the term, “peter”, is unknown. Often said to be a corruption of “blue repeater”, there is actually no signal flag that goes by that designation. The use of the flag to spell the letter “P” dates from 1857 and so cannot have played a role in the origin of the term.
The whist play, introduced by Lord Henry Bentinck, was named by him after the flag.

We lay out in the stream for another whole day, with the Blue Peter flying, to show that we were ready for sea, and to summon any passengers who might yet remain on shore.

1851, W.H.G. Kingston, Peter the Whaler:

If we clung as devotedly as some philosophers pretend we do to the abstract idea of life, or were half as frightened as they make out we are, for the subversive accident that ends it all, the trumpets might sound by the hour and no one would follow them into battle - the blue-peter might fly at the truck, but who would climb into a sea-going ship?

1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

(nautical) A blue signal flag with a white rectangle in the centre, signifying "P". When flown alone, indicates that a ship is ready to sail, requiring all crew members and passengers to return on board.


bowsprit

First attested in late 13th century. Probably borrowed from Middle Low German bochspret, from boch (“bow of a ship”) + spret (“pole”) (related to Old English spreot and English sprout).

(nautical) A spar projecting over the prow of a sailing vessel to provide the means of adding sail surface.


bowline

(nautical) A rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails.

(nautical) A knot tied so as to produce an eye or loop in the end of a rope that will not slip or jam.


cruiser

(nautical, in the days of sail) A frigate or other vessel, detached from the fleet, to cruise independently in search of the enemy or its merchant ships.

(nautical) A class of fast warships of medium tonnage, having a long cruising range but less armour and firepower than a battleship.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role

(nautical) A miniature aircraft carrier carrying VTOL aircraft.

(nautical) A passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are considered an essential part of the experience.

(nautical) Any of several yachts designed for cruising.


boarder

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders.

The captain shouted at the crew to grab arms and repel boarders.

(nautical) A sailor attacking an enemy ship by boarding her, or one repelling such attempts by an enemy.


hulk

From Middle English hulk, hulke, holke (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) (probably reinforced by
From Middle Dutch hulk, huelc, and Middle Low German hulk, holk, hollek (“freighter, cargo ship, barge”)), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”), from Proto-West Germanic *huluk, *hulik, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz, *hulikaz (“something hollowed or dug out, cavity”), equivalent to hole/hollow + -ock. Cognate with Old High German holcho (“cargo or transport ship, barge”) (whence Middle High German holche, modern German Holk), Old Norse hólkr (“metal tube, ring”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel”), Middle English holken (“to dig out, gouge”).
Relation to Medieval Latin hulcus (“ship”) is uncertain, as Old English may have borrowed from Latin or vice versa, but the form holcas rather points to borrowing from Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship, ship used for trading, holcad”) (compare
Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)). See more at the Old English entry hulc.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

Light boates ſaile ſwift, though greater hulkes draw deepe.

c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

Their ſhips thus ſet on ſhore (to fruſtrate their deſire) / Thoſe Daniſh Hulkes became the food of Engliſh fire.

1612, Michael Drayton, “The Twelfth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC, page 197:

(archaic) A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.

bakbeest

They could see the lighthouse shining on Quarantine Island, and the green lights on the old coal hulks.

1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, chapter 3, page 8:

A sister ship, originally the Patriotic, and later renamed Lady Leinster and finally the Lady Connaught, was badly damaged by a mine between Liverpool and Belfast; the British & Irish Steam Packet Company next brought [sic] the hulk back from the Belfast Steamship Company and converted her into a livestock carrier.

1946 March and April, “Notes and News: Anglo-Irish Steamship Fleets”, in Railway Magazine, page 118:

(by extension) A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.


hulk

en-verb

hulk (third-person singular simple present hulks, present participle hulking, simple past and past participle hulked)

hulks (present singular third-person)
hulking (participle present)
hulked (participle past)
hulked (past)

In Fremantle very few vessels appear to have been reduced to hulks, and only one figure head Samuel Plimsoll, [Fig. 62] survives from a sailing ship hulked in 1904. [...] The Sarah Burnyeat was hulked in Albany in 1886, [...]

2003, Gordon de L. Marshall, Ships' Figure Heads in Australia, Tangee Publishing, →ISBN, page 52:

No further additions were made to this group, and by 1729 the Rank was extinct (the last to be struck was the Ludlow, which had been hulked in 1719).

2017, Rif Winfield, Stephen S Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786, Seaforth Publsihing, →ISBN, page 203:

To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.

To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.


bollard

From Middle English bollard, probably from Middle English bole (“tree trunk”), from Old Norse bolr (“stump, trunk”), equivalent to bole + -ard (pejorative or diminutive suffix).

af

Coordinate term: (smaller) cleat

Today he had for bollard the unfinished monument half-erected to some all but forgotten anarchist.

He sat on a bollard, looking out across the water, a man more small and shabby than expected.

(nautical) A strong vertical post of timber or iron, fixed to the ground and/or on the deck of a ship, to which the ship's mooring lines etc are secured.

bitte

as bitte used alone is a widely used slang word for penis


vice admiral

(nautical) A person holding a naval rank between rear admiral and full admiral.


viaduct

[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

The L.C.C. [London County Council] considers viaducts in London objectionable and a hindrance to town planning and would like to abolish all the Southern Railway lines on viaducts in South London. [Nothing much happened, they still exist.]

1944 January and February, C. F. Cobon, “The County of London Plan”, in Railway Magazine, page 24:

(transport) A bridge with several spans that carries road or rail traffic over a valley or other obstacles.


tug

From Middle English tuggen, toggen, from Old English togian (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-West Germanic *togōn, from Proto-Germanic *tugōną (“to draw, tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”).
Cognate with Middle Low German togen (“to draw”), Middle High German zogen (“to pull, tear off”), Icelandic toga (“to pull, draw”). Related to tow.

cog

Shipping of every sort, from passenger liners to ferry steamers, tramps to tugs and trailing barges, feluccas to speedboats and yachts, from warships to caiques, chugs, hoots, glides or churns its way in all directions.

1950 July, J. C. Mertens, “By the "Taurus Express" to Baghdad”, in Railway Magazine, page 435:


punt

From Old English [Term?], from Latin pontō (“Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon”), from pons (“bridge”); readopted from Middle Low German punte (“ferry boat”) or Middle Dutch ponte (“ferry boat”) of the same origin.

der

(nautical) A pontoon; a narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole.


punt

en-verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

punts (present singular third-person)
punting (participle present)
punted (participle past)
punted (past)

(nautical) To propel a punt or similar craft by means of a pole.


stool

en-noun

stool (countable and uncountable, plural stools)

From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English stōl (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōl, from Proto-Germanic *stōlaz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh₂los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian стол (stol, “table”), Russian стул (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from *steh₂- (“to stand”). More at stand.
The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).

cog

the fore backstay deadeyes and stool had to be lowered 2 feet

(nautical) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the deadeyes of the backstays.


tackle

en-noun

tackle (countable and uncountable, plural tackles)

From Middle English takel (“gear, apparatus”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German takel (“ship's rigging”), perhaps related to Middle Dutch taken (“to grasp, seize”). Akin to Danish takkel (“tackle”), Swedish tackel (“tackle”). More at take.

der

(nautical, slang, uncountable) Clothing.


brace abox

en-verb

brace abox (third-person singular simple present braces abox, present participle bracing abox, simple past and past participle braced abox)

braces abox (present singular third-person)
bracing abox (participle present)
braced abox (participle past)
braced abox (past)

(nautical, dated) To bring the foreyards flat aback to stop the ship.


brace by

brace by (third-person singular simple present braces by, present participle bracing by, simple past and past participle braced by)

braces by (present singular third-person)
bracing by (participle present)
braced by (participle past)
braced by (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards in opposite directions on different masts when doing certain maneuvers


brace about

brace about (third-person singular simple present braces about, present participle bracing about, simple past and past participle braced about)

braces about (present singular third-person)
bracing about (participle present)
braced about (participle past)
braced about (past)

(nautical) to brace the ship's yards on the opposite tack when going about


brace aback

brace aback (third-person singular simple present braces aback, present participle bracing aback, simple past and past participle braced aback)

braces aback (present singular third-person)
bracing aback (participle present)
braced aback (participle past)
braced aback (past)

(nautical) to bring the wind onto the forward side of the sails to slow the ship


brace sharp

brace sharp (third-person singular simple present braces sharp, present participle bracing sharp, simple past and past participle braced sharp)

braces sharp (present singular third-person)
bracing sharp (participle present)
braced sharp (participle past)
braced sharp (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards around to make the smallest possible angle with the fore and aft line when sailing close-hauled


brace in

brace in (third-person singular simple present braces in, present participle bracing in, simple past and past participle braced in)

braces in (present singular third-person)
bracing in (participle present)
braced in (participle past)
braced in (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards more square to the fore and aft line


tablet

→ Scottish Gaelic: tablaid

From Middle English tablet, from Old French tablete (Modern French tablette), diminutive of table (“table”).

The latter's loss of time between Manakau and Levin was due to the mishap of dropping the tablet at Ohau, which entailed an out-of-course stop of 3 min. to recover it.

1939 November, “Overseas Railways: Locomotive Performance in New Zealand”, in Railway Magazine, page 351:

(rail transport) A type of round token giving authority for a train to proceed over a single-track line.


brace of shakes

en-noun

brace of shakes (plural braces of shakes)

(nautical) The time taken for a sail to shake or shiver twice as a ship comes into the wind.


breeches buoy

(nautical) A ring lifebuoy, fitted with canvas breeches, rigged between ship and shore, for rescuing seamen when a ship is in danger of breaking up; also used for transferring people from ship to ship at sea.


box the compass

en-verb

box the compass (third-person singular simple present boxes the compass, present participle boxing the compass, simple past and past participle boxed the compass)

boxes the compass (present singular third-person)
boxing the compass (participle present)
boxed the compass (participle past)
boxed the compass (past)

While in the school-ships the boys would be instructed in the elements of an ordinary education, in addition to being taught to row, heave the lead, box the compass, go aloft, reef, steer, and work the guns.

I say it is south, for the country is more deserted there." "And I say east," said my patient. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. […] "And I am for north," said I […] "Come," cried the Inspector, laughing, "it's a very pretty diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us."

1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb:

(nautical) To know, and demonstrate by reciting, the 32 points and quarter points of the magnetic compass from North or East, both clockwise and anticlockwise.


larboard

en-noun

larboard (usually uncountable, plural larboards)

From Middle English ladde-bord, latebord, most likely referring to the side of the ship on which cargo was loaded. Changed to larboard in the 16th century by association with starboard. (Texts from the 1500s have spellings like lerbord, leereboord, larboord, corresponding to how they spell sterbord, steereboord, starboord.)

[…] harder beset
And more endangered than when Argo passed
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks,
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned
Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered.

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2:

The boat made a sharp half-turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt.

1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström:

Suddenly the foremost Martian lowered his tube, and discharged a canister of the black gas at the ironclad. It hit her larboard side, and glanced off in an inky jet, that rolled away to seaward, an unfolding torrent of black smoke, from which the ironclad drove clear.

1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 17:

"It means to turn to larboard."

The schooner ploughed on Northerly for a minute longer, before tacking again to lay herself half a mile in advance of the nearer corvette, now up on their larboard quarter.

The Java, placing herself under the same canvas as her opponent, stood directly for her; and at 2 h. 10 m. P. M., when within half a mile, the Constitution opened a fire from her larboard guns, and a second broadside was discharged before the Java returned the fire from a position close upon the larboard-bow of her antagonist.

2012, Paul Harris Nicolas, Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces:

This time an almost defeated sigh was heard from both the larboard and starboard gun crews. Even though the larboard gun crew was up first, the starboard crew had seen what was eventually to be their next target as well.

2014, Barry D. Boothe, INFIDEL: Don’t Tread On Me:

(archaic, nautical) The left side of a ship, looking from the stern forward to the bow; port side.


break ground

en-verb

break ground (third-person singular simple present breaks ground, present participle breaking ground, simple past broke ground, past participle broken ground)

breaks ground (present singular third-person)
breaking ground (participle present)
broke ground (past)
broken ground (participle past)

(nautical, of an anchor) To lift off the sea bottom when being weighed.


close-hauled

(nautical) with the sails trimmed as close to the wind as possible with all sails full and not shivering


brigantine

Attested 1525, for a small rowing vessel, from earlier brigandyns, from Middle French brigandin, probably from Italian brigante (“skirmisher, pirate, brigand”), from Latin brigō (“to fight”).

der

The Galles and thoſe pilling Briggandines,
That yeerely ſaile to the Uenetian goulfe,
And houer in the ſtraightes for Chriſtians wracke,
Shall lie at anchor in the Iſle Aſant.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

(nautical) a two-masted vessel, square-rigged on the foremast, but fore-and-aft-rigged mainsail with a square-rig above it on the mainmast.

brigantina

square-rigged foremast with main mast rigged fore-and-aft, sailing vessel


whiff

The noun is possibly:
* partly a variant of Middle English wef, weffe (“bad smell, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either:
** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or
** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan); and
* partly onomatopoeic.
Noun sense 6 (“name of a number of flatfish”) is possibly derived from sense 1 (“brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air”), sense 4 (“small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.”), and other such senses.
The verb and adjective are derived from the noun. Verb sense 2.6 (“to catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat”) is possibly derived from sense 1.1 (“to carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air”), sense 2.2 (“to be carried, or move as if carried, by a puff of air”), and other such senses.
The interjection is derived from noun sense 7.4 (“a sound like that of air passing through a small opening; a short or soft whistle”).

дъх

short inhalation or exhalation of breath

(nautical) An outrigged boat for one person propelled by oar.


breakwater

/ˈbɹeɪkˌwɔːtə/

From break + water. Compare Dutch breekwater (“breakwater”).

(nautical) A low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers.


ware

en-verb

ware (third-person singular simple present wares, present participle waring, simple past and past participle wared)

wares (present singular third-person)
waring (participle present)
wared (participle past)
wared (past)


blowback

en-noun

blowback (countable and uncountable, plural blowbacks)

The Boulogne stop lasted a few minutes, during which I was surprised to see no use was made of the blower. In this country, if you shut the regulator without the blower on, the odds are there will be a blowback.

1961 February, ""Balmore"", “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives”, in Trains Illustrated, page 109:

(rail transport) On a steam locomotive, the reversal of exhaust gases when the regulator is closed without using the blower.


detrain

en-verb

detrain (third-person singular simple present detrains, present participle detraining, simple past and past participle detrained)

detrains (present singular third-person)
detraining (participle present)
detrained (participle past)
detrained (past)

If you plan to detrain at the next stop, please begin gathering your belongings.

Here my party detrained, but the train proceeded to Souk Ahras via Duvivier.

1944 January and February, Major J. C. F. Lloyd Williamson, “Ambulance Trains in Algeria and Tunisia”, in Railway Magazine, page 6:

(rail transport, intransitive) To exit from a train; to disembark

wysiąść

(intransitive) to exit from a train; to disembark

Following the accident passengers were detrained through the rear cab.

The trouble occurred on the 10.5 a.m. Paddington-Bristol trip, when gangers' tools left on the track near Swindon punctured one of the unit's fuel tanks and the passengers had to be detrained to wait for the down "Merchant Venturer".

1961 February, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 122:

(rail transport, transitive) to remove a passenger or passengers from a train; to evacuate passengers from a train.


bull rope

(nautical) a rope used for hoisting a topmast or topgallant mast in a square-rigged ship; it is rove from the cap of the lower mast, through a sheave in the foot of the topmast and then back through a block on the lower masthead, with the hauling part led to the deck


broadside

Broadside! What fools to face our guns!

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Rtas 'Vadum (Robert Davi), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:

(nautical) One side of a ship above the water line; all the guns on one side of a warship; their simultaneous firing.

бордов залп

the simultaneous firing of all the guns on one side of a warship


AFL

(automotive) Initialism of adaptive front light.


bulkhead

Coordinate term: deckhead

(nautical) A vertical partition dividing the hull into separate compartments; often made watertight to prevent excessive flooding if the ship's hull is breached.


winding

en-noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

The noun is derived from Middle English winding, windinge, wyndynge (“directional change, curve, turn; bend of the leg at the knee; meandering course of a river; act of turning and twisting; twisting of things (especially thread) together; wrapping of a cloth around something; wattling of a structure; wattle(s); ornamentation with interwoven patterns; hoisting of something”) [and other forms], and then partly:
* from winden, wynden (“to go, move; to move forcefully or suddenly; to direct, guide, lead; to go along a meandering or twisting course; to move in a circular pattern, revolve, turn; to move restlessly, toss and turn; to wriggle free; to move with a turning or twisting motion, bend, turn, twist; to form or mould (something) in one’s hands; to mix together; to cover; to clothe, dress; to wrap (a baby, a corpse, etc.); to encircle, surround; to bind; to interlace; to winch; (figurative) to conceal, disguise; to embroil, involve”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerund nouns, and the present participle forms of verbs).; and
* from Old English windung (“woven object”), from windan (“to twist, wind; to circle, curl, eddy, spiral”) (from Proto-Germanic *windaną (“to wind; to wrap”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn; to wind”)) + -ung (suffix forming nouns denoting a verbal action or something involved in a verbal action).
The adjective is derived from the verb.
The English word is analysable as wind (“to turn coils of (a cord, etc.) around something; to encircle, enfold, entwist, wrap; to travel in a way that is not straight”) + -ing (suffix forming present participial adjectives and verbs, and nouns denoting an action or the embodiment of an action).

suffix

(British, nautical) The act or process of turning a boat or ship in a certain direction.


brig

desctree

→ French: brick
→ Romanian: bric
→ Ottoman Turkish: بریق (brik)
Turkish: brik

→ Irish: bruig

→ Portuguese: brigue

Abbreviated from brigantine, from Italian brigantino; in sense “jail”, from the use of such ships as prisons.

(nautical) A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on both foremast and mainmast


See the Wikipedia article ISO 216, the international standard on paper sizes.

(UK, rail transport) A3 class, a class of steam locomotive used on the London and North Eastern Railway.


flank

From Late Middle English flanc, from Late Old English flanc (“flank”), from Old French flanc, of Germanic origin, probably Frankish *hlanca, from Proto-Germanic *hlankō (“bend, curve, hip, flank”), from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“flexible, sleek, bendsome”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend”). Akin to Old High German hlanca (“loin”), Middle Low German lanke (“hip joint”) (German lenken (“to bend, turn, lead”)), Old English hlanc (“loose, slender, flaccid, lank”). More at lank.

cog

All ahead flank!

(US, nautical, of speed) Maximum. Historically faster than full speed (the most a vessel can sustain without excessive engine wear or risk of damage), now frequently used interchangeably. Typically used in an emergency or during an attack.


dashboard

/ˈdæʃˌbɔː(ɹ)d/

/ˈdæʃˌboəɹd/

/ˈdæʃˌbɔːɹd/

From dash (“to sprinkle; to splatter”) + board for meaning 1. Possibly expanded meaning later.


direct flight

(travel) A flight in which the passenger makes intermediate stops but does not change aircraft.


square away

en-verb

square away (third-person singular simple present squares away, present participle squaring away, simple past and past participle squared away)

squares away (present singular third-person)
squaring away (participle present)
squared away (participle past)
squared away (past)

Accordingly, when the wheel was relieved at eight o'clock, the order was given to keep her due north, and all hands were turned up to square away the yards and make sail.

1969, Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast: Twenty-four Years After:

(nautical) To square the ship's yards to make her run before the wind, with the wind blowing straight from the stern.


MCO

(travel, aviation, dated) Initialism of miscellaneous charge order.


limbo

en-noun

limbo (countable and uncountable, plural limbos or limboes)

The noun is derived from Middle English limbo, lymbo (“place where innocent souls exist temporarily until they can enter heaven”), from Latin limbō, the ablative singular of limbus (“border, edge; hem; fringe, tassel”) (notably in expressions like in limbō (“in limbo”) and e limbō (“out of limbo”)); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *lemb- (“to hang limply or loosely”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang down loosely (?)”). Doublet of limp.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(countable, military, nautical, weaponry) A type of antisubmarine mortar installed on naval vessels.


parliamentary

The train was moving less fast through the summer night. The swift express had changed into something almost a parliamentary, had stopped three times since Norwich, and now, at long last, was approaching Banton.

1931, Francis Beeding, “1/1”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps:

(British, historical, railways) Of a class of train which, by an act of parliament, ran both ways along a line, at least once each day, at the rate of one penny per mile.


sentry

From earlier sentrie, sentery, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of sentinel or sanctuary; or perhaps from Old French senteret (“a path”), diminutive of sentier, from Medieval Latin semitarius (“a path”).

(nautical) A form of drag to be towed underwater, which on striking bottom is upset and rises to the surface.


side chain

When the screw coupling replaced the old chain couplings on passenger stock, the latter were retained and still coupled up to prevent severance of a train in the event of a screw coupling breaking. The contingency is so remote, however, that the side chains have been abolished.

1946 May and June, “The Why and The Wherefore: Miscellanea”, in Railway Magazine, pages 197–198:

(rail transport) On some railways, a chain fitted on both sides of a centre coupler or buffer at each end of a rail vehicle, which has a hook for connection to a corresponding chain on the next vehicle in a train.


dead weight

en-noun

dead weight (countable and uncountable, plural dead weights)

(nautical) The largest weight of cargo a ship is able to carry; i.e, the weight of a ship when fully loaded minus its weight when empty.

Having dropped the coach, the trio returned with the Class 47 leading and the other two locomotives as dead weight.

2023 November 29, “Network News: Test runs for WCR fleet returnees”, in RAIL, number 997, page 24:

(rail transport) The total (unpowered) weight of a train to be propelled (or hauled) by the locomotive; another locomotive being hauled dead as part of the train is a dead weight.


doghouse

During the slave trade, slaves were packed into every available niche aboard the slave ships, including the officers' cabins. The officers slept on deck in semi-cylindrical boxes, nicknamed "dog houses." The term "in the dog house" grew to describe being in a difficult situation due to the extreme discomfort of sleeping in these boxes.

1981, Charles Snelling, “Nomenclature of Ships”, in Naval Sea Systems Command publication:

(nautical) A difficult or demoralizing situation.


warp

warp (countable and uncountable, plural warps)

From Middle English warp, werp, from Old English wearp, warp (“a warp, threads stretched lengthwise in a loom, twig, osier”), from Proto-Germanic *warpą (“a warp”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Middle Dutch warp, Middle Low German warp, German werfen, Danish varp, Swedish varp.

der

We finish’d the Raft that Night, and in the Morning sent Mr. Prat, our Chief Mate, and four Men in the Boat with a long Rope for a Warp, to fasten on the Land.

1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, pages 11–12:

[…] trailed one of my sea anchors or at least some warps in order to ease the ship […]

1966, Peter Tangvald, Sea Gypsy, page 24:

(nautical) A line or cable or rode as is used in warping (mooring or hauling) a ship, and sometimes for other purposes such as deploying a seine or creating drag.


warp

en-verb

warp (third-person singular simple present warps, present participle warping, simple past and past participle warped)

warps (present singular third-person)
warping (participle present)
warped (participle past)
warped (past)

→ Japanese: ワープ (wāpu)

From Middle English werpen, weorpen, worpen, from Old English weorpan (“to throw”), from Proto-Germanic *werpaną (“to throw, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Scots warp (“to throw, warp”), North Frisian werpen (“to throw”), Dutch werpen (“to throw, cast”), German werfen (“to throw, cast”), Icelandic verpa (“to throw”).

der

The usual method is to warp the yarn, either in whole or half hauls, […]

1830, William Burney, A New Universal Dictionary of the Marine:

The next part of the process previous to tarring, is that of warping the yarns, or stretching them all to one length.

1852, Thomas Antisell, Hand-book of the Useful Arts: Including Agriculture, page 541:

(transitive, intransitive, obsolete, ropemaking) To run (yarn) off the reel into hauls to be tarred.

We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped three or four miles around the corner of the island.[…]

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

At slack tide, the crew warped the ship into the lock that lowered the vessel down to river height,

2011, Derek Lundy, The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days:

(transitive, nautical) To move a vessel by hauling on a line or cable that is fastened to an anchor or pier; (especially) to move a sailing ship through a restricted place such as a harbour.

Having all our boats out with anchors and warps in them, which were presently run out, the ship warped into safety, where we dropt anchor for the night.

1777, James Cook, A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World:

A good anchorage was found at Tanna, and the ship warped close in.

2009, Arthur Kitson, The Life of Captain James Cook, page 148:

(intransitive, nautical, of a ship) To move or be moved by this method.

To move:
To move or be moved by this method.


flog a dead horse

en-verb

flog a dead horse (third-person singular simple present flogs a dead horse, present participle flogging a dead horse, simple past and past participle flogged a dead horse)

flogs a dead horse (present singular third-person)
flogging a dead horse (participle present)
flogged a dead horse (participle past)
flogged a dead horse (past)

(dated, nautical) To attempt to get extra work out of a ship's crew during the dead horse period.


pricker

(nautical) A small marlinespike used in sailmaking.


loggerhead

From logger (“(dialectal) heavy wooden block secured to a horse's leg to prevent it from straying”) + head. Logger was apparently coined because its sound connotes a clumsy, heavy object; compare log (“trunk of a dead tree; bulky piece of wood”).

compound

Not very far distant Flask's boat was also lying breathlessly still; its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead, a stout sort of post rooted in the keel, and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform. It is used for catching turns with the whale line. Its top is not more spacious than the palm of a man's hand, and standing upon such a base as that, Flask seemed perched at the mast-head of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks. But little King-Post was small and short, and at the same time little King-Post was full of a large and tall ambition, so that this loggerhead stand-point of his did by no means satisfy King-Post.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The First Lowering”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, pages 245–246:

(nautical) A post on a whaling boat used to secure the harpoon rope.


blindside

(automotive) A driver's field of blindness around an automobile; the side areas behind the driver.

(rail transport) A tram/train driver's field of blindness around a tram (trolley/streetcar) or a train; the side areas behind the tram/train driver.

slepý úhel

motor vehicle/train/tram driver's field of blindness


controller

/kənˈtɹəʊlə/

From Middle English countreroller, from Anglo-Norman contreroulour and Middle French contreroleur (French contrôleur), from Medieval Latin contrārotulātor, from *contrārotulāre (from which control). By surface analysis, control + -er.

(nautical) An iron block, usually bolted to a ship's deck, for controlling the running out of a chain cable. The links of the cable tend to drop into hollows in the block, and thus hold fast until disengaged.


footloose

en-adj

footloose (comparative more footloose, superlative most footloose)

more footloose (comparative)
most footloose (superlative)

(nautical) Of a sail: not properly secured at the bottom.


bus lane

(automotive, road transport) A traffic lane designated for the use of buses.


cat's-paw

en-noun

cat's-paw (plural cat's-paws or cats'-paws)

From cat + paw. In most senses, due to a resemblance of shape. In its senses as a pawn to another's interests or analysis, variant of earlier cat's-foot, derived from European tales of a monkey (attested as early as 1456 but sometimes misattributed to the 16th-century monkey of Pope Julius II) who used a sleeping puppy or cat's foot to rake hot chestnuts out of a fire, taken as a metaphor for rulers' ill use of their subjects. Now usually understood in light of Jean de La Fontaine's 1679 fable of the "The Monkey and the Cat" (sometimes misattributed to Aesop), in which the monkey fools the cat into removing the chestnuts through flattery and promises of shared reward. The cat removes the chestnuts one by one, burning his paw while the monkey eats each in turn. A maid then enters and chases them both away. La Fontaine's moral concludes that princes should not endure real losses for mere flattery from their king.

an unrelated metaphor from a separate story

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

Cats-paw, a light air of wind perceived... by the impression made on the surface of the sea, which it sweeps very lightly, and then decays.

1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine:

No, not a cat’s paw anywhere:
Hold up your finger in the air
You could n’t feel a breath;
For why, in yonder storm that burst,
The wind that blew so hard at first
Had blown itself to death.

“Now,” said Hands, “look there; there’s a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat’s paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship.”

There was very little wind, though now and again a catspaw hurrying from the south helped them on their way and darkened the smooth small waves.

1930, Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons:

(nautical) A minor breeze that ripples the surface of a body of water.

...when the mate came to shake the catspaw out of the down-haul...

1840, Richard Henry Dana, chapter XXXIII, in Two Years Before the Mast, page 125:

(nautical) A twisting variant of the lark's-foot hitch which forms two small bights used to hook a pair of tackles to a rope.


roadworthy

en-adj

roadworthy (comparative more roadworthy, superlative most roadworthy)

more roadworthy (comparative)
most roadworthy (superlative)

Coordinate term: unroadworthy

It was one of the rapidest Constitutions ever put together; made, some say in eight days, by Hérault Séchelles and others; probably a workmanlike, roadworthy Constitution enough; — on which point, however, we are, for some reasons, little called to form a judgment.

1851, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History:

The coupe shrieked as it hit the curve, but Harry managed the twist with precision and the roadworthy car responded.

1937 July 15, Maxwell Grant, “House of Silence”, in The Shadow:

(automotive, road transport) Being able to be driven, or suitable for driving, on the open road.


turret

From Middle English touret, from Old French torete (French tourette), diminutive of tour (“tower”), from Latin turris. Doublet of tor, tourelle, and tower. See tower.

оръдейна кула

a revolving tower constructed of thick iron plates

(rail transport) The elevated central portion of the roof of a passenger car, with sides that are pierced for light and ventilation.


ATV

en-noun

ATV (countable and uncountable, plural ATVs)

South of the beach access road, people rode ATVs over the dunes, and the ATV engines sounded like bugs from a distance, a high buzzing whine. Ambulances drove down the beach to collect ATV drivers three or four times a day.

2020, Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel, Picador (2021), pages 245-246:

all-terrain vehicle
all-terrain vehicle#English

(transport) Initialism of all-terrain vehicle. (an astride-seated quad or tri-wheeled off-road recreational vehicle).

all-terrain vehicle

Automated Transfer Vehicle
Automated Transfer Vehicle#English

(transport, space science) Initialism of Automated Transfer Vehicle.


bail out

en-verb

bail out (third-person singular simple present bails out, present participle bailing out, simple past and past participle bailed out)

bails out (present singular third-person)
bailing out (participle present)
bailed out (participle past)
bailed out (past)

But it passed, leaving us up to our knees in water. 'Bail out! bail out!' shouted Job, suiting the action to the word.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(transitive, nautical) To remove water from a boat by scooping it out.


tailwind

(nautical, physics) A wind that blows in the same direction as the course taken by an aircraft, sailing ship, bird, etc.

medvind

a wind that blows in the same direction as the course of an aircraft or ship


crib

en-noun

crib (countable and uncountable, plural cribs)

From Middle English crib, cribbe, from Old English crib, cryb, cribb, crybb (“couch, bed; manger, stall”), from Proto-West Germanic *kribbjā, from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (“crib, wickerwork”), from Proto-Indo-European *grebʰ-, *gerbʰ- (“bunch, bundle, tuft, clump”), from *ger- (“to turn, twist”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Kräbbe, Krääb, Krääf (“crib”), West Frisian krêbe (“crib”), Dutch krib (“crib, manger”), German Krippe (“rack, crib”), Danish krybbe (“crib”), Icelandic krubba (“crib”). Doublet of crèche. The sense of ‘stealing, taking notes, plagiarize’ seems to have developed out of the verb.
The criminal sense may derive from the 'basket' sense, circa the mid 18th century, in that a poacher could conceal poachings in such a basket (see the 1772 Samuel Foote quotation). The cheating sense probably derives from the criminal sense.

пищов

notes concealed by a student to aid him/her in test or examination

(nautical) A small sleeping berth in a packet ship or other small vessel


headwind

From Middle English *hedwind, from Old English hēafodwind, equivalent to head + wind. Cognate with Old Norse höfuðvindr.

(nautical, physics) A wind that blows directly against the course of a vehicle, like an aircraft, train, or ship.


DA

Dhaka railway station
w:Kamalapur railway station

(rail transport) The station code of Dhaka railway station in Bangladesh.


round trip

From round (“complete, entire"; "forming a circle or cycle”) + trip (“journey”).

compound

Margaret purchased a single round trip ticket to and from Chicago, as it was cheaper than buying two one-way tickets.

The fare for this sightseeing tour of London is about 1s., but it is necessary to rebook at least once, as through tickets are not issued for the round trip.

1950 July, J. G. Gibbons, “Sightseeing on the Inner Circle”, in Railway Magazine, page 485:

(often figurative, travel) A trip from one destination to another and then returning to the starting location.

ذهاب وعودة

a trip from one destination to another and then returning to the starting location


transom

From Middle English traunsom; probably an alteration of Latin trānstrum (“crossbeam”).

a hinged glassed frame above such a crossbar

(nautical) Any of several transverse structural members in a ship, especially at the stern; a thwart.

(nautical) The flat or nearly flat stern of a boat or ship.


lay down

en-verb

lay down (third-person singular simple present lays down, present participle laying down, simple past and past participle laid down)

lays down (present singular third-person)
laying down (participle present)
laid down (participle past)
laid down (past)

From Middle English leyen doun, leien doun (“to lay down”), equivalent to lay + down.

(nautical, dated) To draw the lines of a ship's hull at full size, before starting a build.


one-way ticket

(travel) A ticket granting permission to travel to a place but not return.

單程票

a ticket granting permission to travel to a place but not back


convertible

en-adj

convertible (comparative more convertible, superlative most convertible)

more convertible (comparative)
most convertible (superlative)

From Old French convertible, from Late Latin convertibilis (“interchangeable”), from Latin convertere (“to turn back, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down”), from con- (“with, together”) + vertere (“to turn”), + -ibilis (“-ible: able to”). Equivalent to convert + -ible.

der

Able to be turned into a different thing, especially

(vehicles) Able to change from a closed to an open frame and back again.


convertible

(vehicles) A convertible car: a car with a removable or foldable roof able to convert from a closed to open vehicle and back again.


drifter

In winds above 10 knots we usually run wing-and-wing with our 100 percent lapper set on a whisker pole opposite the mainsail. As the wind drops, we get out the drifter and set it flying to leeward (Fig. 1).

1995, Ken Textor, The New Book of Sail Trim, page 85:

After trying a variety of light-wind sails, we've found the most versatile and simple one to be a nylon drifter.

1999, Lin Pardey, Larry Pardey, Cost Conscious Cruiser: Champagne Cruising on a Beer Budget:

Some people recommend a medium- to lightweight 140- or 150-percent headsail, and others go for a drifter/reacher.

2000, Jim Howard, Charles J. Doane, Handbook of Offshore Cruising, page 178:

(nautical) A type of lightweight sail used in light winds like a spinnaker.

However, sensing the available traction may actually be more important to a drifter.

2006, Paul Morton, How to Drift: The Art of Oversteer, page 32:

For professional drifters looking for even more fine-tuning of their suspension setups, some companies offer more advanced two-way adjustable shocks […]

2007, Calvin Wan, Calvin Wan's Drifting Performance Handbook, page 132:

While this method is used by a few drifters in rear-wheel drive cars, this technique is really the only way one can drift in a front-wheel drive car.

2009, Michael Bender, The Fast, the Fraudulent and the Fatal, page 50:

(automotive) A driver who uses driving techniques to modify vehicle traction to cause a vehicle to slide or power slide rather than drive in line with the tires.


tipple

en-noun

tipple (countable and uncountable, plural tipples)

Unknown but possibly from a Scandinavian source (see Norwegian tipla), or from tip + -le.

Alternative form: tippler

(countable, rail transport) An apparatus for unloading railroad freight cars by tipping them; the place where this is done.


loop

From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(transport) A bus or rail route, walking route, etc. that starts and ends at the same point.

ringvej

transportation route that starts and ends at the same point

In 1908 the line was extended to a station called Wood Lane, which was built on a terminal track loop so that trains could turn round and go back the other way, [...]

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 119:

(rail transport) A place at a terminus where trains or trams can turn round and go back the other way without having to reverse; a balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop.


spill

en-verb

spill (third-person singular simple present spills, present participle spilling, simple past and past participle spilled or spilt)

spills (present singular third-person)
spilling (participle present)
spilled (participle past)
spilled (past)
spilt (participle past)
spilt (past)

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, from Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to spoil, kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to sunder, split, rend, tear”).
Cognate with Dutch spillen (“to use needlessly, waste”), French gaspiller ("to waste, squander" < Germanic), Bavarian spillen (“to split, cleave, splinter”), Danish spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”).

cog

(nautical) To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain.


summit

PIE word
 *upó
The noun is derived from Late Middle English somet, somete (“head, top”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman sumet and Middle French sommet (masculine), somete, sommette (“top of a thing; highest point of a mountain”) (feminine) (modern French sommet), from Old French somet, sommette, from som, sum (“highest point, summit”) + -et (suffix forming diminutive masculine nouns), -ete, -ette (suffix forming diminutive feminine nouns). Som, sum are derived from Latin summum (“top, summit”), a noun use of the neuter of summus (“greatest, highest; top, uppermost”, adjective) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upó (“below, under”) + *-m̥mós, *-tm̥mós (“suffix forming superlative adjectives”)). The modern English spelling was influenced by summity (“height or top of a thing; utmost degree, perfection”) (obsolete).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

The topmost point or surface of a thing; the apex, the peak.

(nautical, rail transport, road transport) The highest point of a canal, railway, road, etc.


airbag

In a fast German car / I'm amazed that I survived / An airbag saved my life

1997, “Airbag”, in OK Computer, performed by Radiohead:

However, the challenges for the railway world are much greater than for automotive as we generally have more occupants, higher speeds, greater masses, higher energies, and an absence of seatbelts or airbags to contend with.

2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 32:

(automotive) A protective system in automobiles in which when a crash occurs, a bag containing nitrogen, formed by the explosive decomposition of sodium azide, quickly inflates in front of the driver or passenger, preventing injury to the head. Side air bags, including the back seat passengers, also prevent injury.


mail train

A journey from Mombasa to Kampala is by no means dull. The mail train consists of about 13 carriages, three first, three second, three or four third, a restaurant car and two or three old first class non-corridor carriages used as seconds. This comes to about 400 tons tare. In addition there are two vans for crew and three or four covered freight trucks.

1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:

This cutting from an East African newspaper caught our eye last month:
"The up mail train from Mombasa was held up for an hour at Kibwezi by an angry rhino on Monday night. The locomotive had collided with the rhino as it tried to cross the track. For some time the animal lay stunned between the rails but when it regained consciousness it was very irate. The engine driver, Mr. Mackenzie of Nairobi, tried unsuccessfully to frighten the rhino off the track but it refused to move. Eventually, it ran off into the bush and the train was able to proceed to Nairobi, where it arrived 28 minutes late."

1961 October, “Talking of Trains: B.R. exile at work?”, in Trains Illustrated, page 586:

There are special rooms where mail can be stored and stacked ready for despatch and accommodation with cooking facilities for T.P.O. crews who change from one mail train to another at Tamworth.

1962 December, “New station at Tamworth”, in Modern Railways, page 385:

As he passed though the station, he slowed to yell to the signalman, Frank 'Sailor' Bridges: "Sailor - have you anything between here and Fordham? Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:

(rail transport) A train used by the postal service to transport mail, and in some cases, to sort mail en route.


inward

From Middle English inward, from Old English inweard, corresponding to in + -ward.


motive power

en-noun

motive power (usually uncountable, plural motive powers)

While at first in the U.S.A. it may have been a matter of high-pressure salesmanship—and it has undoubtely been the irresistible enterprise of the General Motors Corporation, through its Electro-Motive subsidiary, that has set in motion this amazingly rapid transformation of American railway motive power, and has caused all the steam locomotive builders in the U.S.A. to follow suit or be left out in the cold—it seems now beyond dispute that, so far as the U.S.A. is concerned, the economics of the power question can be solved no other way.

1950 January, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 12–13:

(rail transport, collectively) The locomotives that operate on a railway.


c/o

1976-1977, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
Sunday I penned my letter, Monday I mailed it c/o the high school.

Anna c/o Bob ― Anna at Bob's address

Send your mail to me c/o Mr. John Smith.

“But he sent it to you, didn't he?” “No, he sent it to himself c/o me.”

(shipping) Abbreviation of care of, used to identify an intermediary who is responsible for transferring a piece of mail between the postal system and the final addressee.

p

(abbreviation) identifies intermediary in delivering mail — see also care of


c/o

certificate of origin
certificate of origin#English

(shipping) Initialism of certificate of origin, a document describing a product's country of origin.


bumboat

From Dutch bomschuit (“small fishing boat”) + boat.

(nautical) A small boat used for carrying provisions to ships lying at anchor in a harbour.

小販船

a small boat used for carrying provisions to ships


buoyage

buoyage (countable and uncountable, plural buoyages)

(nautical) Any of several codes of practice under which buoys of various shapes and colours are used for the same navigational purpose.


burgoo

burgoo (countable and uncountable, plural burgoos)

goo

Of unclear origin. Apparently from the dialectal term burgood (“yeast”).
* Perhaps ultimately from Welsh burym (“yeast”) + cawl (“cabbage, gruel”),
* Or perhaps from Arabic بُرْغُل (burḡul).
* Or, from an alteration of ragout.

(nautical) A dish which originated among seafarers during the days of sail: a sort of porridge seasoned with sugar, salt and butter.


ducks

His spotless white ducks set tight about the hips, and hang loosely at the bottom, just allowing the tips of a pair of patent-leather pumps to peep out from beneath their ample breadth.

1856, Charles Nordhoff, Nine Years a Sailor:

(nautical) The light trousers worn by sailors in hot climates.


ERA

(European Union, railways) Initialism of European Railway Agency (called today the European Union Agency for Railways)


burthen

Old form of burden. Compare similar development in murder.

[...] and thence to Calstock, a town on the Tamar, which is washed by the sea flowing through Plymouth Sound and Hamoaze, and which place vessels of 200 tons burthen can reach at spring tides—[...].

1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, pages 647, from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 3, 1834:

(obsolete or historical, nautical) The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.


bumpkin

From Dutch boomken (“shrub, little tree”), equivalent to boom + -kin. Note that the English word boom is etymologically related to the aforementioned in the sense of "large stem", or "big tree". Compare German Baumke, Bäumchen.

(nautical) A short boom or spar used to extend a sail or secure a stay.


quoin

(obsolete, nautical) A form of wedge used to prevent casks from moving


sea lane

(nautical) A regularly used route for ocean-going vessels.


BRS

(transport) Initialism of bus rapid service.


doldrums

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

From obsolete doldrum (“slothful or stupid person”) plus the plural suffix -s. Doldrum is possibly derived from dull or Middle English dold (past participle of dullen, dollen (“to make or become blunt or dull; to make or become dull-witted or stupid; to make or become inactive”), from dul, dol, dolle (“not sharp, blunt, dull; not quick-witted, stupid; lethargic, sluggish”); see further at dull), modelled after tantrum.

[F]rom the bluff-head, where I watched to-day, / I saw her in the doldrums; for the wind / Was light and baffling.

1823, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in The Island, or Christian and His Comrades, London: […] John Hunt, […], →OCLC, stanza XXII, page 44, lines 507–509:

(nautical) Usually preceded by the: the state of a sailing ship when it is impeded by calms or light, baffling winds, and is unable to make progress.

Flaute

Mr. Ralph Abercromby has made special observations on the upper wind currents over the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. [...] With respect to the general circulation of the atmosphere we know that the surface trades either die out at the doldrums or unite into one moderate east current; that the low and middle currents over the doldrums are very variable, but that the winds at these low and middle levels, 2,000 to 20,000 feet, come usually from the southeast over the northeast trade, and from the northeast over the southeast trade, and that the highest currents—over 20,000 feet—move from east over the doldrums, from southwest over the northeast trade, and from northwest over the southeast trade.

1890, George E. Curtis, “[General Appendix to the Smithsonian Report for 1889] Progress of Meteorology in 1889”, in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution to July, 1889, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, section VII (Winds and Ocean Currents; General Atmospheric Circulation), page 245:

Hurricanes are known to develop in the belt of doldrums in the southern North Atlantic Ocean and also in the western Caribbean Sea when the Pacific doldrum belt extends into that area. However, many tropical storms of the Gulf, Caribbean, and southern North Atlantic have not with certainty been traced to a place of origin, and it cannot be said with assurance that they do not develop occasionally in other areas.

1938, I[van] R[ay] Tannehill, “Places of Origin”, in The Hurricane: (Revised 1938) (United States Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication; no. 197), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published February 1939, →OCLC, page 2, column 2:

[...] The High Encounter entered the doldrums near the equator, where the ship ended up in the captain's effort to avoid the British. Without wind to move the ship, The High Encounter waffled in the slow-moving sea.

2001, Douglas Berry, chapter 41, in A Ship Called Grace, Lincoln, Neb.: Writer’s Showcase, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 313:

(nautical, oceanography, by extension) Usually preceded by the: a part of the ocean near the equator where calms, squalls, and light, baffling winds are common.


plummet

From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.

inh

I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13, column 2:

Iudgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousnesse to the plummet: and the haile shall sweepe away the refuge of lyes, and the waters shall ouerflow the hiding place.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 28:17:

Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:

And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.

1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter VI, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:

He told her then of his life since he had returned to the jungle—of how he had dropped like a plummet from a civilized Parisian to a savage Waziri warrior, and from there back to the brute that he had been raised.

1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC:

(archaic, nautical) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.


ADT

en-noun

ADT (countable and uncountable, plural ADTs)

Average Daily Traffic
w:Average Daily Traffic

(traffic information) Initialism of Average Daily Traffic.


surge

From Middle English surgen, possibly from Middle French sourgir, from Old French surgir (“to rise, ride near the shore, arrive, land”), from Old Catalan surgir, from Latin surgō, contraction of surrigō, subrigō (“lift up, raise, erect; intransitive rise, arise, get up, spring up, grow, etc.”, transitive verb), from sub (“from below; up”) + regō (“to stretch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent.

der

He that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

1901, Bible (American Standard Version), James i. 6

He flies aloft, and, with impetuous roar, / Pursues the foaming surges to the shore.

1697, Virgil, “Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

(nautical) The swell or heave of the sea (FM 55-501).