Definitions

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

  • noun One that builds or repairs ships.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A builder of ships; a ship-carpenter.
  • noun A local English name of the spotted ling: so called because it has “a resemblance to the spilt pitch on the clothes of these mechanics.”

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

  • noun One whose occupation is to construct ships; a builder of ships or other vessels.

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

  • noun A person who designs, builds and repairs ships, especially wooden ones

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

  • noun a carpenter who helps build and launch wooden vessels

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ship +‎ wright (“builder”)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word shipwright.

Examples

  • You enlist him as one of your companions and a shipwright should be a very useful member of your crew.

    Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1912

  • “And as shipwright and able assistant,” she laughed back.

    Chapter 37 2010

  • They know me at the Running Hart, and they gave me to wait at table a boy that I know something of, whose uncle is a shipwright in my yard.

    Movie Night 2010

  • It was in her blood, of course; that shipwright grandfather of hers was probably the last of a long line of merchant seamen.

    Movie Night 2010

  • If he, for instance, had a shipwright build him a ship for the price of 2 ounces of gold, he might write out a note which would say, "Pay Mr. Shipwright 2 ounces of gold out of my gold on deposit at Mr. Goldsmiths's storeroom."

    How did Paper Money come to be? 2009

  • Only one man could put it right—the shipwright Champdoré, who “cleverly mended the rudder.”

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • In the harbor, shipwright Champdoré repaired the damaged rudder while Champlain surveyed the anchorage and made a chart.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • These men appeared in the records of many voyages to America.26 Others with professional expertise included Pierre Angibault, sieur de Champdoré, a skilled shipwright and amateur pilot.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • He decided to make repairs underway and took along the shipwright Champdoré, several artisans, a “store of planks,” and a shallop.70

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • The Catholic priest and Protestant pastor lived there, the surgeon Deschamps, and the skilled shipwright Champdoré.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The H.M.S. Shipwright was listed as a "transport" captured at Yorktown in 1781.

    October 29, 2007