Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The forward part of a ship's prow.
- n. The wedge-shaped end of a bridge pier, designed to divide the current and break up ice floes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The fore part of a ship's prow, which cuts the water. Also called false stem.
- n. The lower portion of the pier of a bridge, formed with an angle or edge directed up the stream, so as more effectually to resist the action of the water, ice, etc.
- n. The razorbill, or black skimmer, Rhynchops nigra.
Wiktionary
- n. The forward curve of the stem of a ship
- n. the wedge of a bridge pier, that resists the flow of water and ice.
- n. a black skimmer; a sea bird of the species Rhynchops niger, that flies low over the sea, "cutting" the water surface with its lower mandible to catch small fish.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The fore part of a ship's prow, which cuts the water.
- n. A starling or other structure attached to the pier of a bridge, with an angle or edge directed up stream, in order better to resist the action of water, ice, etc.; the sharpened upper end of the pier itself.
- n. A sea bird of the Atlantic (Rhynchops nigra); -- called also
black skimmer ,scissorsbill , andrazorbill . See Skimmer.
Examples
“It was deep water, and a slight ripple under what might be termed the cutwater of the tree indicated a movement.”
“a makeshift devised when proper caulking is impossible; cutwater, which is not only a bird but the bow of a ship, or a rope or cable in front of it, or a construction on the upstream side of a bridge; and halyard, the rope that hauls up a sail -- sails having been attached to yardarms when ships were square-rigged.”
“In the stern the motor chugged on easily; at the bows I heard the tinkling ripple from the cutwater.”
“The cutwater crushed, the bowsprit sundered, decks awash with blood.”
“The head is strongly drawn over [backwards] and arched down like a cutwater [drawing itself back from the line of the keel].”
“V – shaped nick in the face of the floe, the slope her cutwater often causing her bows to rise till nearly clear of the water, when she would slide backwards, rolling slightly.”
“He hoisted himself onto the cutwater, and by the bowsprit arrived at the forecastle.”
“He took breath, then, hoisting himself up, he managed to reach the extremity of the cutwater.”
“Flora had been lovingly grafted to the hull of my yacht above the cutwater to carry me safely across the Pacific.”
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
“He forced himself to begin with the first one, to the left of the archway, which depicted a ship without sails, its curved cutwater throwing back water and foam to suggest a great speed.”
Darkness
Lists
‘cutwater’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
qroqqa . . . he felt that he was looking upon a figurehead in a museum, which though static, no longer roosting on its cutwater, seemed yet to be going against the wind . . .
—Djuna Barnes, Nightwood Nov 18, 2008