Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical, to scrape (the wet decks of a ship) with a squilgee.
  • noun Nautical:
  • noun An implement somewhat resembling a wooden hoe, with an edge of india-rubber or thick leather, used to scrape the water from wet decks.
  • noun A small swab.
  • noun A becket and toggle used to confine a studdingsail while setting it.
  • noun One of several implements constructed like the nautical implement above defined (1 ), used for washing glass, in photographic work, etc. See squeegee, 2.

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

  • noun Formerly, a small swab for drying a vessel's deck; now, a kind of scraper having a blade or edge of rubber or of leather, -- used for removing superfluous water or other liquids, as from a vessel's deck after washing, from window panes, photographer's plates, etc.
  • transitive verb To swab, press, or treat with a squilgee.

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

  • noun A squeegee; a scraper for removing liquid.
  • noun nautical, historical A small swab used for drying a vessel's deck.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Edgewise moved along the oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • Edgewise moved along the oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.

    Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855

  • Edgewise moved along the oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

  • Edgewise moved along the oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.

    Moby-Dick, or, The Whale 1851

Comments

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  • See yarb's citation on nipper. Cool word!

    July 29, 2008

  • Thanks - I was in a rush and forgot to x-ref.

    July 29, 2008

  • The washing, swabbing, squilgeeing, &c. lasts, or is made to last, until eight o'clock, when breakfast is ordered, fore and aft. After breakfast, for which half an hour is allowed, the boats are lowered down, and made fast astern, or out to the swinging booms by geswarps, and the crew are turned-to upon their day's work.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 14

    September 6, 2008