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.

---

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

---

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

The boatswain's chair was then attached, and with the aid of a pair of strong horses, who pulled away at one end of the rope, the professor was hauled to the top of the rock.

From The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 42, August 26, 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Bishop, Julia Truitt

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

He dragged the hawser in with some difficulty, made it fast to the cross-trees, and then rigged a kind of running boatswain's chair from a section of the loose rigging.

From The Harbor Master by Roberts, Theodore Goodridge

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