Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Nautical, on men-of-war, a pair of strong frames of oak made in the form of gallows, fixed between the fore and main hatchways, with concave cross-beams called gallows-tops tenoned on to the uprights, to support spare topmasts, yards, booms, boats, etc. Also called gallows, gallows-frame, gallows-stanchions.
Examples
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Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gallows-bitts’.
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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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Hey! L...
for the same
ichthyarchy, thalassic, nip-cheese, cerement, manavalins, rockweed, polder, semipalmate, blue peter, curragh, crowfoot, cat and 160 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gallows-bitts.
chained_bear "The tail man had barely time to whip a turn round the gallows-bitts before the stout line was twanging taut, the hook well home, and the shark threshing madly under the starboard quarter..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Far Side of the World, 130
A Sea of Words: A wooden frame used by fishing boats under sail to rest their masts on when they stopped to work their nets. (209) Feb 20, 2008