English Dictionary

BOWSPRIT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bowsprit mean? 

BOWSPRIT (noun)
  The noun BOWSPRIT has 1 sense:

1. a spar projecting from the bow of a vesselplay

  Familiarity information: BOWSPRIT used as a noun is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


BOWSPRIT (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A spar projecting from the bow of a vessel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

spar (a stout rounded pole of wood or metal used to support rigging)


 Context examples 


This had nearly tossed me off into the sea; and now I lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit, and tumbled head foremost on the deck.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She had ingots of silver along her yards and bowsprit, and a bit of silver plate at the truck of the masts.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There lay the Ghost, bow on to the beach, her splintered bowsprit projecting over the sand, her tangled spars rubbing against her side to the lift of the crooning waves.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When I joined the Service, you would find a lieutenant gammoning and rigging his own bowsprit, or aloft, maybe, with a marlinspike slung round his neck, showing an example to his men.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other tack, with a report like a gun.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In the morning, Thomas Mugridge being duly bribed, the galley is pleasantly areek with the odour of their frying; while dolphin meat is served fore and aft on such occasions as Johnson catches the blazing beauties from the bowsprit end.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The bowsprit was over my head.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Let me pause for a minute to look out over the sea sparkling in the sun, or to gaze at a sailor going aloft to the gaff-topsails, or running out the bowsprit, and I am sure to hear the hateful voice, ’Ere, you, ’Ump, no sodgerin’.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The HISPANIOLA rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and then with a whiff of spray.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)



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