Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Nautical Weight or materials, such as rigging, cables, and spars, stored either aloft or on the upper decks.
- noun Cumbersome, unnecessary matter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Nautical: Any unnecessary weight, either aloft or about the upper decks.
- noun The light upper sails and their gear.
- noun The whole of the rigging and sails of: a ship.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) The upper rigging, spars, etc., of a ship.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical The
upper rigging ,spars , etc., of aship .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Well, you won't make land or anything else in a thousand years once you get all your top-hamper piled down on deck.
CHAPTER XLVI 2010
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Daughtry and the captain emerged last from the cabin, and both stared upward for a moment at the gaps in the slender, sky - scraping top-hamper, where, only minutes before, the main - and mizzen-topmasts had been.
CHAPTER XV 2010
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"As soon as the sea rises," she said, "we'll have that loose main-yard and all the rest of the top-hamper tumbling down on deck."
CHAPTER XLV 2010
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I cried, “and there was our poor little top-hamper of intelligence on all these waves of instinct and wordless desire, these foaming things of touch and sight and feeling, like — like a coop of hens washed overboard and clucking amidst the seas.”
In the Days of the Comet Herbert George 2006
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Already I was level with the top-hamper of the masts to either side.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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At last I approached the faint descending gossamers of the rigging, cables that sometimes caught the starlight, sometimes vanished in the darkness or against the towering bank of silver that was the top-hamper of the deck beyond.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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_Josephine_ appeared to show nearly as much top-hamper as she did before the gale, only that all the masts were much shorter than before, the foremast especially being only an apology for the former spar.
The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea J. [Illustrator] Schonberg
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And presently the "something" -- a mere patch of denser black in a darkness emphasized more than relieved by the grey-white crests of breaking seas -- resolved itself into a large vessel, which as day broke was seen to be a frigate, like themselves under the shortest of canvas, and with all possible top-hamper down on deck.
Stories of the Border Marches Jeanie Lang
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Fortunately, there were no men aloft at the time the wind chopped so suddenly, or they must have been swept overboard with the wreck of the top-hamper, that was now grinding against the vessel's side to leeward right under her quarter, and bumping with such force against her timbers as to threaten to stove them in.
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This was the fourth time he had ventured beneath the sea in his search for the coveted weapon, which was to free the ship from the cumbersome masts and top-hamper that kept her down on her beam-ends.
The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea J. [Illustrator] Schonberg
chained_bear commented on the word top-hamper
"Weight and encumbrance aloft, originally referring to a ship's upper masts, sails, and rigging. Later, also, the burden above the hull." --A Sea of Words, 443
March 10, 2008