yardarm

[ yahrd-ahrm ]

nounNautical.
  1. either of the outer portions of the yard of a square sail.

Origin of yardarm

1
First recorded in 1545–55; yard1 + arm1

Words Nearby yardarm

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use yardarm in a sentence

  • Overhead the yardarm blinkers were signaling, and directly over Sara Lee's head a great white searchlight swept the water ahead.

    The Amazing Interlude | Mary Roberts Rinehart
  • Expect me then soon, for I hope to run athwart you, yardarm and yardarm, as an old salt we once knew used to say.

  • I dreamed all night that I was in the hands of the Americans, with a rope round my neck and about to be run up at the yardarm.

    Peter the Whaler | W.H.G. Kingston
  • Her master, as Griggs remarked, "was no d—d slouching lubber, and knew a yardarm from a rattan cane."

    Richard Carvel, Complete | Winston Churchill
  • Four of the pirates were picked up, and hung at the yardarm next morning.

    By order of the company | Mary Johnston

British Dictionary definitions for yardarm

yardarm

/ (ˈjɑːdˌɑːm) /


noun
  1. nautical the two tapering outer ends of a ship's yard

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