Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In a man-of-war, a platform, generally circular in shape, on or near the top of a mast, and provided with rapid-fire guns of small caliber and with accommodations for riflemen. It is generally reached by a ladder inside the hollow steel mast. Also called
military top .
Etymologies
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Examples
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The vessel was to carry four large barbettes and a huge umbrella-like fighting-top.
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On each mast, just above the lower yard, yet below the masthead, was a fighting-top built of elm wood and gilded over.
On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. John Masefield 1922
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As the officer who had been in the fighting-top jumped clear into the sea, the vessel began to go down, now by the head.
Our Navy in the War Lawrence Perry 1914
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There were three officers with him in the fighting-top and three seamen.
Our Navy in the War Lawrence Perry 1914
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The post of one of the gun-crew officers was in the fighting-top of the basket-mast forward, his duty being that of spotter of his crew.
Our Navy in the War Lawrence Perry 1914
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While the abandonment of the ship was under way, the officer who had been in the bunkers, and whose station was in the fighting-top, hurried upward to his post.
Our Navy in the War Lawrence Perry 1914
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They could see men moving on her decks, and the watchman stationed in the foremast fighting-top.
The Sea-Hawk Rafael Sabatini 1912
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If that Silas up there hadn't gone foamy in the fighting-top and tried to hit that policeman over by the fence with the ball, where'd your inside play been?
Bunker Bean Harry Leon Wilson 1903
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An officer in a fighting-top used a telegraph-dial, and a stoker in the depths his shovel, in a chink of light from the furnace.
"Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea Morgan Robertson 1888
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A spiral staircase led to the main-deck below, and another to the first fighting-top above, in which staircase were small platforms where a signal-officer and two quartermasters watched through slits the signals from the flag-ship, and answered as directed by the captain below with small flags, which they mastheaded through the hollow within the staircase.
"Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea Morgan Robertson 1888
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