Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In the life-saving service, a light cord attached to a ball which is fired from a gun or mortar so as to fall over a vessel in distress.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Navy/AFP/Getty Images Nov. 27: A U.S. soldier shot a shot-line to the Military Sealift Command ' s Fleet Replenishment Oiler USNS Tippecanoe as it pulled alongside the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the waters west of the Korean peninsula.
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He was the man who the winter before had slipped a rope about his body, plunged into the surf and swam out to the brig Gorgus and brought back three out of the five men lashed to the rigging, all too benumbed to make fast the shot-line fired across her deck.
Tides of Barnegat Francis Hopkinson Smith 1876
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Holt made a spring from the dune and came running toward Parks, who was now knotting the shot-line about his waist.
Tides of Barnegat Francis Hopkinson Smith 1876
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Suddenly, and while the men still tugged at the track-ropes, keeping abreast of her so as to be ready with the mortar and shot-line, the ill-fated vessel swung bow on toward the beach, rose on a huge mountain of water, and threw herself headlong.
Tides of Barnegat Francis Hopkinson Smith 1876
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Then his eye fell upon Parks knotting the shot-line about his waist.
Tides of Barnegat Francis Hopkinson Smith 1876
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