BIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bight mean? 

• BIGHT (noun)
  The noun BIGHT has 4 senses:

1. a loop in a rope

2. a bend or curve (especially in a coastline)

3. a broad bay formed by an indentation in the shoreline

4. the middle part of a slack rope (as distinguished from its ends)

  Familiarity information: BIGHT used as a noun is uncommon.

• BIGHT (verb)
  The verb BIGHT has 1 sense:

1. fasten with a bight

  Familiarity information: BIGHT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A loop in a rope

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("bight" is a kind of...):

loop (anything with a round or oval shape (formed by a curve that is closed and does not intersect itself))

Derivation:

bight (fasten with a bight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A bend or curve (especially in a coastline)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("bight" is a kind of...):

bend; crook; turn; twist (a circular segment of a curve)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A broad bay formed by an indentation in the shoreline

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Context example:

the Great Australian Bight

Hypernyms ("bight" is a kind of...):

bay; embayment (an indentation of a shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf)

Instance hyponyms:

Bight of Benin (a broad indentation of the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa)

Great Australian Bight (a wide bay of the Indian Ocean in southern Australia; notorious for storms)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The middle part of a slack rope (as distinguished from its ends)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bight" is a kind of...):

center; centre; midpoint (a point equidistant from the ends of a line or the extremities of a figure)

Holonyms ("bight" is a part of...):

rope (a strong line)

• BIGHT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fasten with a bight

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "bight" is one way to...):

fasten; fix; secure (cause to be firmly attached)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

bight (a loop in a rope)

 Context examples 

My father and mother were Danes, and how they ever came to that bleak bight of land on the west coast I do not know. I never heard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The Indians landed them and their supplies in a lonely bight of land a hundred miles or so beyond Latuya Bay, and returned to Skaguay; but the three other men remained, for they were members of the organized party.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Having taken the pirate captain prisoner, sailed slap over the schooner, whose decks were piled high with dead and whose lee scuppers ran blood, for the order had been 'Cutlasses, and die hard!' 'Bosun's mate, take a bight of the flying-jib sheet, and start this villain if he doesn't confess his sins double quick,' said the British captain.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I cut no more than was necessary, and what with passing the long ropes under and around the booms and masts, of unreeving the halyards and sheets, of coiling down in the boat and uncoiling in order to pass through another knot in the bight, I was soon wet to the skin.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)