Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. Nautical In a vertical or almost vertical position or direction: rowers holding their oars apeak.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Nautical, in a nearly vertical position or relation; pointing upward, or in an up-and-down direction. An anchor is said to be apeak, and a ship to be hove apeak, when the cable and ship are brought, by the tightening of the former, as nearly into a perpendicular line with the anchor as may be without breaking it from the ground. A yard or gaff is apeak when it hangs obliquely to the mast. Oars are apeak when their blades are held obliquely upward, as in a boat with an awning, while the crew are awaiting the order to “give way.”
Wiktionary
- adv. nautical, of an anchor In a vertical line, the cable having been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. (Naut.) In a vertical line. The anchor in
apeak , when the cable has been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it, and the ship is them said to be hoveapeak .
Etymologies
- a- + peak? (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of apike, probably from French à pic : à, to (from Old French a, from Latin ad-; see ad-) + pic, peak (from Old French). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The men at once threw their oars "apeak," as they say; that is, raised them straight up in the air, and waited for further orders.”
“The men at once threw their oars "apeak", as they say; that is, raised them straight, up in the air, and waited for further orders.”
“apeak," the "sheets" drawn "taut" and "belayed," and the wet canvas, spread out once more, became filled with the breeze, and carried the craft with a singing sound through the water.”
“When I landed with my trade goods, leaving my steering sweep apeak, Otoo left his stroke position and came into the stern sheets, where a Winchester lay ready to hand under a flap of canvas.”
“#1 I was floored when I heard Gary Sinese apeak about his love of Focus on the Family and real patriots like Palin … floored. the others were a given, but for some reason I expected more from this guy!”
“Anyone who dares apeak honestly about Obama will be demonized, called a racist.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“You believe what they SAY when everyone with half a brain knows that ACTIONS apeak louder…”
“We apeak of things we know, we bear testimony of things we have seen.”
SPEECH BY MR MBULELO GONIWE, DURING THE DEBATE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
“I should be glad to see you at the garrison, if the wind of your inclination sits that way; and mayhap it may be a comfort to your aunt, to behold you alongside of her, when her anchor is apeak.”
“With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of their sails adrift, the three boats now stilly floated, awaiting Moby”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apeak’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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The Innocents Abroad
Words rounded up while reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.
rakish, excursionist, bowelless, pilgrimizing, melodeon, woebegone, abaft, sextant, veriest, behindhand, stanchion, avast and 188 more...
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Words of Standing
steed, stool, estancia, stage, stance, staunch, stanch, stanchion, stanza, stative, stator, stay and 180 more...
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whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for apeak.
chained_bear "'...if I do not mistake we are short stay apeak. I say we are short stay apeak.' But before he could insist upon this term, better than any Martin could produce, and reasonably accurate, a voice called from the forecastle...'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 66 Mar 3, 2008