Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Nautical, a temporary mast erected on a ship, to supply the place of one that has been broken or carried away, as in a tempest or an engagement.
  • noun In surgery, a metal rod attached to a plaster jacket and supporting a sling in which the head rests by the chin and occiput: employed to relieve the spine of the weight of the head in caries of the cervical or upper dorsal vertebræ.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Drew tried in vain to rouse them, telling them that all depended on rigging a jury-mast forward as soon as possible.

    Westward Ho! 2007

  • This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast.

    Westward Ho! 2007

  • Because a jury-mast is a makeshift for a lost spar, it does not follow that a jury-woman is a make-shift for any body.

    Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 01, April 2, 1870 Various

  • Cuffee, too, was blowing away at the galley fire till his black face looked like that of a red Indian; and, as for Mr Marline, he was in his element, as he always was when overseeing anything connected with the rigging of the ship, enjoying himself to his heart's content in setting up a jury-mast to take the place of our broken foremast.

    The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea J. [Illustrator] Schonberg

  • Then a jury-mast was rigged, the ship put before the wind, and in twenty-one days she reached St. Thomas.

    The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 356, October 23, 1886. Various

  • An officer and some men seized the flag, rigged up a jury-mast on the parapet, and soon it was flying again.

    The Life of Abraham Lincoln Henry Ketcham

  • (Grafton,) and was trying to sail under a jury-mast (North).

    The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. From George III. to Victoria Edward Farr

  • "I quite agree with you, sir," replied Mr Marline; "and if I had not thought so, you would have seen me long ere this on the fo'c's'le, getting up a jury-mast or something."

    The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea J. [Illustrator] Schonberg

  • The wind was too fierce to permit even an attempt to rig a jury-mast.

    Cord and Creese James De Mille

  • The soft sweet wind beat against the sail as happily as if it had been Cleopatra's weft of purple silk, and carried her on, while she lay back, one arm around her jury-mast, and half indifferently unconscious again.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 Various

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  • "'Such tales have I heard of Captain Bentinck's palls, or rather shrouds, and his triangular courses, of Captain Pakenham's newly-discovered rudder, of Captain Bolton's jury-mast, of improved iron-horses, dogs, dolphins, mouses — or mice as some say — puddings...'

    "'Puddings, my dear sir?' cried Graham.

    "'Puddings. We trice 'em athwart the starboard gumbrils, when sailing by and large.'

    "'The starboard gumbrils ... by and large,' said Graham, and with a passing qualm Stephen recalled that the Professor had an unusually good memory..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 76

    February 11, 2008