Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The nuts of forest trees accumulated on the ground, formerly used as food for swine.
  • noun Nautical A tall vertical spar, sometimes sectioned, that rises from the keel or deck of a sailing vessel to support the sails and the standing and running rigging.
  • noun A vertical pole.
  • noun A tall vertical antenna, as for a radio.
  • noun A captain's mast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fruit of the oak and beech or other forest-trees; acorns or nuts collectively, serving as food for animals.
  • To fix a mast or masts in; supply with a mast or masts; erect the masts of: as, to mast a ship.
  • noun A pole or pillar of round timber, or of tubular iron or steel, secured at the lower end to the keel of a vessel, and rising into the air above the deck to support the yards, sails, and rigging in general.
  • noun Any tall pole.
  • noun The main upright member of a derrick or crane, against which the boom abuts.
  • To feed on mast.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The fruit of the oak and beech, or other forest trees; nuts; acorns.
  • transitive verb To furnish with a mast or masts; to put the masts of in position.
  • noun (Naut.) A pole, or long, strong, round piece of timber, or spar, set upright in a boat or vessel, to sustain the sails, yards, rigging, etc. A mast may also consist of several pieces of timber united by iron bands, or of a hollow pillar of iron or steel.
  • noun (Mach.) The vertical post of a derrick or crane.
  • noun (Aëronautics) A spar or strut to which tie wires or guys are attached for stiffening purposes.
  • noun See under Afore, and Before.
  • noun See under Coat.
  • noun one of a number of hoops attached to the fore edge of a boom sail, which slip on the mast as the sail is raised or lowered; also, one of the iron hoops used in making a made mast. See Made.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tall, slim post or tower, usually tapering upward, used to support, for examples, the sails on a ship, flags, floodlights, or communications equipment such as an aerial, usually supported by guy-wires.
  • verb To supply and fit a mast to a ship
  • noun The fruit of forest-trees (beech, oak, chestnut, pecan, etc.), especially if having fallen from the tree, used as fodder for pigs and other animals.
  • verb To feed on forest seed or fruit.
  • verb agriculture, forestry, ecology To vary fruit and seed production in multi-year cycles.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any sturdy upright pole
  • noun nuts of forest trees used as feed for swine
  • noun nuts of forest trees (as beechnuts and acorns) accumulated on the ground
  • noun a vertical spar for supporting sails

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English mæst.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English mæst.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English mæst, from Proto-Germanic *mastaz, from Proto-Indo-European *mast- (“board”). Cognate with Dutch mast, German Mast, and via Indo-European with Latin mālus, Russian мост (móst, "bridge"), Irish adhmad.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English mæst ("fallen nuts, food for swine"), mæsten ("to fatten, feed"), from West Germanic; probably related to meat.

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Examples

  • We very soon carried out this project, and all of us working away to join our handkerchiefs, we had by the next afternoon a big flag flying from what we called our mast-head.

    A Voyage round the World A book for boys William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • I can scarcely bring myself to realize that that great mast is really up and in; that you have lifted it from the water, swung it through the air, and deposited it here where it belongs.

    Chapter 37 2010

  • Pakistani flag in half mast from the Guardian and Benazir Bhutto from here.

    Hope Against Hope 2007

  • Pakistani flag in half mast from the Guardian and Benazir Bhutto from here.

    Vitro Nasu » 2007 » December 2007

  • When I turn on the radio, I get a grinding sound 'cos the worm screw on the radio mast is stripped.

    Ever so much closer... frankwu 2007

  • Unless, of course, he was cast to play the main mast of Sinbad's ship.

    March 2005 2005

  • Unless, of course, he was cast to play the main mast of Sinbad's ship.

    Not Just Bad, Its Sinbad 2005

  • He calmly stated, My mast is on fire and I've lost my hydraulics.

    Boffman, Alan B. 1990

  • But what we need mast is same preventive medicine.

    Unemployment Compensation in Wisconsin 1932

  • A mooring mast is built now ready for the airship at St. Hubert, south of Montreal.

    The Development of Aviation Within the Empire 1929

Comments

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  • دیرک

    تیر

    دکل یکپارچه

    December 5, 2012

  • The sailor arrived in port at last,

    Bedecked in trophies unsurpassed.

    Three sheets to the wind

    He lavishly sinned

    And flew a trollop from his mast.

    March 16, 2014