boatswain's chair

American  

noun

1. a seat composed of a plank suspended in a horizontal position from ropes, used by painters and other persons who work on the exteriors of buildings, ships, etc., while seated at a considerable height.

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boatswain's chair British  

noun

1. nautical a seat consisting of a short flat board slung from ropes, used to support a person working on the side of a vessel or in its rigging

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Etymology

Origin of boatswain's chair

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boatswain's chair

Soon Mitscher had to transfer by boatswain's chair to the destroyer English, which flew his three-starred flag with unaccustomed pride.

From Time Magazine Archive

Through the eddying tide ... up over the slippery rocks ... and presently Jim and the mate were unfastening the bonds that held the insensible millionaire in the boatswain's chair.

From Jim Spurling, Fisherman or Making Good by Tolman, Albert Walter

You had better bend a boatswain’s chair on to the gaff-topsail halyards, and send him up in that, as I shall require him to stay there until we are safely at anchor.

From The Cruise of the Thetis A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection by Cuneo, Cyrus

And, still holding on carefully, she pulled on the halliard with her free hand, until the boatswain's chair was far enough down again to go down of its own weight.

From The Clammer and the Submarine by Hopkins, William John

But he just took one look at the boatswain's chair, and said "Nit," laying down on the ground when they tried to persuade him into it, and rolling over and over in desperation.

From Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas by Osbourne, Lloyd