bilge

American  

[bilj] / bɪldʒ /

noun

1. Nautical.

   1. either of the rounded areas that form the transition between the bottom and the sides on the exterior of a hull.

   2. Also bilges. (in a hull with a double bottom) an enclosed area between frames at each side of the floors, where seepage collects.

   3. Also called bilge well.  a well into which seepage drains to be pumped away.

   4. Also called bilge water.  seepage accumulated in bilges.

2. Slang. bilge water.

3. the widest circumference or belly of a cask.

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verb (used without object)

• bilges,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bilged,
  past participle,  past
• bilging
  present participle

1. Nautical.

   1. to leak in the bilge.

   2. (of white paint) to turn yellow.

2. to bulge or swell out.

verb (used with object)

• bilges,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bilged,
  past participle,  past
• bilging
  present participle

1. Nautical. to damage (a hull bottom) so as to create an entry for seawater.

bilge British  

/ bɪldʒ /

noun

1. nautical the parts of a vessel's hull where the vertical sides curve inwards to form the bottom

2. (often plural) the parts of a vessel between the lowermost floorboards and the bottom

3. Also called: bilge water.  the dirty water that collects in a vessel's bilge

4. informal silly rubbish; nonsense

5. the widest part of the belly of a barrel or cask

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verb

1. (intr) nautical (of a vessel) to take in water at the bilge

2. (tr) nautical to damage (a vessel) in the bilge, causing it to leak

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bilgy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• bilging
  present
• bilged
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bilge
  simple
• bilges
  simple
• have bilged
  perfect
• has bilged
  perfect
• am bilging
  progressive
• are bilging
  progressive
• is bilging
  progressive
• have been bilging
  perfect progressive
• has been bilging
  perfect progressive

Past

• bilged
  simple
• had bilged
  perfect
• was bilging
  progressive
• were bilging
  progressive
• had been bilging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bilge
  simple
• will have bilged
  perfect
• will be bilging
  progressive
• will have been bilging
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of bilge

First recorded in 1505–15; perhaps variant of bulge

Explanation

The bilge is the lowest part of a ship where the bottom curves up to meet the sides. The water that collects there is also called bilge. Since bilge is dirty and smelly, the word is also slang for “nonsense.” On a large ship, some water inevitably ends up in the part that’s below the water line, the bilge. Because the bilge tends to sit there for a long time, sloshing around and mixing with oil, chemicals, waste, and cleaning products, it tends to stink. Periodically, the bilge is pumped out so the ship doesn't get too heavy and sink. Bilge is thought to be a variation on bulge, originally "wallet or bag," and later "ship's hull."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bilge bilges bilged bilging

If you have ever sat at a restaurant, marveling at the bilge offered on the kids’ menu and wondering how on earth we got here, “Picky” has the answers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

The ship is built in sections, then joined together on the slipway, supported by keel blocks, bilge blocks, wedges and "shores" - heavy lengths of timber.

From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2024

Chief Engineer Roberto Cayabyab Penaflor admitted to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for knowingly discharging untreated oily bilge water directly from the tanker into the sea, federal prosecutors said.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2023

Before long, water filled the base of the boat, the bilge pump grinding in a constant whir as it tried to keep up.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2023

What a lot of bilge I could think up at night.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

She urged measures such as requiring fishers and riverboat operators to bleach boat hulls, bilges, and wells after passing through an affected area.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 20, 2021

We mapped the bilges out in the fall, came back and looked at them in spring, and there was nothing there.

From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2017

But it actually is a Spanish expression, “of where the sea goes”; while the Spanish never settled this area, they would empty their bilges so the ocean would wash away their effluence.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2016

Since hitchhiking to the Great Lakes in the bilges of ocean-going ships, they have expanded virtually unchecked and are considered a major threat to waterways including Lake Erie.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 29, 2015

With each dip and plunge of the boat, Worsley swooped the pot up in the air lest their precious hoosh go slopping into the bilges.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Many of them bilged, or failed to graduate!

From Time Magazine Archive

His knowledge and care, however, did not answer expectation, for he ran the proa on the rocky shoals near the island of Bottone, where she bilged and lost all the mace, the men getting ashore.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Kerr, Robert

In a short time after, she struck, bilged, and grounded, between two small islands, where Providence directed us to such a place as we could save our lives.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Kerr, Robert

The sloop had lodged on the rock, bilged by the ragged granite.

From Poor Man's Rock by Johnson, Frank Tenney

He cast another fond look at her as she lay bilged on the cruel rocks.

From The Missing Ship The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley by Kingston, William Henry Giles

"And that perhaps you've saved us from bilging?" added Midshipman Hayes.

From Dave Darrin's First Year at Annapolis by Hancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)

The Trial sloop was a great way to leeward, having lost her mainmast in this squall, and having been obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the wreck.

From Anson's Voyage Round the World The Text Reduced by Household, H. W.

The ship continued to beat on the rocks, and soon bilging, fell with her broadside towards the shore.

From Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities. by Anonymous

She was bilging fast, with an ominous list to larboard, and it could be no more than a question of moments before she settled down.

From Captain Blood by Sabatini, Rafael

Indeed, to make her safe from bilging, Blood ordered a prompt jettisoning of the forward guns, anchors, and water-casks and whatever else was moveable.

From Captain Blood by Sabatini, Rafael