abaft

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“
The wind had wheeled again and coming abaft, the bark shot on into the southward, trying to outrun the gale.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adverb Toward the stern.
  2. preposition Toward the stern from.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • These persons, selected for their activity, strength, and coolness, should belong to the after-guard, main and mizen-top, and gunner's crew, men whose duties lie chiefly abaft or about the mainmast. —  The Lieutenant and Commander
  • A bower cable of each ship was immediately got out abaft, and bent forward. —  The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I
  • They had the wind thus abaft, and he sailed thus during five hours with the foresail only, having always the troubled sea, and made at once two leagues and a half towards the northeast. —  The life of Christopher Columbus: from his own letters and journals and other documents of his time.
  • We were running with the wind dead abaft, under a reefed fore-topsail and a storm jib, everything else having been taken in the night before. —  The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I
  • The sea struck her abaft, and washed clean over her from stern to stem; and had not Snatchblock aided Adair in hauling away on the yoke-line, she must have broached-to. —  The Three Commanders
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English on baft : on, at; see on + baft, to the rear (from Old English beæftan, behind : be, by, at; see ambhi in Indo-European roots + æftan, behind; see apo- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English *abaft, obaft, on baft: see a and baft.
 

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/əˈbæft/
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