BRIG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brig mean? 

• BRIG (noun)
  The noun BRIG has 2 senses:

1. two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on both masts

2. a penal institution (especially on board a ship)

  Familiarity information: BRIG used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRIG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on both masts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

sailing ship; sailing vessel (a vessel that is powered by the wind; often having several masts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A penal institution (especially on board a ship)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

penal facility; penal institution (an institution where persons are confined for punishment and to protect the public)

Domain category:

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

 Context examples 

It was he who attacked twelve Spanish gunboats in his one little brig, and made four of them strike to him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the way he passed the fishing village of Pitt's Deep, and marked that a little creyer or brig was tacking off the land, as though about to anchor there.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Next day we were picked up by the brig Hotspur, bound for Australia, whose captain found no difficulty in believing that we were the survivors of a passenger ship which had foundered.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)