fore-and-aft

[ fawr-uhnd-aft, -ahft, fohr- ]

adjective
  1. located along or parallel to a line from the stem to the stern.

Origin of fore-and-aft

1
First recorded in 1610–20

Words Nearby fore-and-aft

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

How to use fore-and-aft in a sentence

  • About two dozen or more yachts make use of it, among them being steamers and vessels of every method of fore-and-aft rig.

    Yachting Vol. 2 | Various.
  • She is a fore-and-aft schooner of one hundred and ten tons, said to have been built at Baltimore.

    A Middy of the King | Harry Collingwood
  • He is not like a new hand altogether, having already had two years' experience in a fore-and-aft craft.

  • Jib-topsail: A triangular sail set on the fore-topmast stay of fore-and-aft vessels.

  • Jack-yard: A small yard used to extend the foot of a fore-and-aft balloon topsail that extends beyond the end of the gaff.

Other Idioms and Phrases with fore-and-aft

fore-and-aft

Both front and back, everywhere, as in The children clung to the teacher fore and aft. This expression is nautical terminology for the bow, or front, and the stern, or back, of a vessel. Today it is also used more broadly. [First half of 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.