breeches buoy


nounNautical.
  1. a rescue device consisting of a life buoy from which is suspended a canvas sling, similar in form to a pair of breeches, in which shipwrecked or disabled persons are hauled from a vessel to the shore or to another vessel by means of a rope and pulley between them.

Origin of breeches buoy

1
First recorded in 1875–80

Words Nearby breeches buoy

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How to use breeches buoy in a sentence

  • Out to the wreck, the breeches buoy traveled, and then returned with its freight of a second man.

    Fighting the Sea | Edward A. Rand
  • Their calmness and skillful handling of the breeches buoy gear inspired the onlookers with renewed hope.

  • But several waves washed completely 78 over the breeches buoy and the girl was each time buried from sight.

  • They had erected 76 a stout pair of wooden “shears” in the sand and over this the breeches buoy gear ran.

  • Supposing I told you that the man left the ship, alive and sound in the breeches-buoy, and got here in this condition.

    The Flying Death | Samuel Hopkins Adams

British Dictionary definitions for breeches buoy

breeches buoy

noun
  1. a ring-shaped life buoy with a support in the form of a pair of short breeches, in which a person is suspended for safe transfer from a ship

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012